England Under the Tudors pdf

Agents from Desmond and the pretender visited thecourt of the young King of Scots James IV., in March, 1492, and in the summer Charles VIII., whose territories Henry was then ostentatiou

England Under the Tudors

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Title: England Under the Tudors

Author: Arthur D Innes

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS ***

Produced by Karl Hagen, David Moynihan, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS

BY ARTHUR D INNES

SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD

FOURTH EDITION

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

BY THE GENERAL EDITOR

In England, as in France and Germany, the main characteristic of the last twenty years, from the point of view

of the student of history, has been that new material has been accumulating much faster than it can be

assimilated or absorbed The standard histories of the last generation need to be revised, or even to be putaside as obsolete, in the light of the new information that is coming in so rapidly and in such vast bulk Butthe students and researchers of to-day have shown little enthusiasm as yet for the task of re-writing history on

a large scale We see issuing from the press hundreds of monographs, biographies, editions of old texts,selections from correspondence, or collections of statistics, mediaeval and modern But the writers who (likethe late Bishop Stubbs or Professor Samuel Gardiner) undertake to tell over again the history of a long period,with the aid of all the newly discovered material, are few indeed It is comparatively easy to write a

monograph on the life of an individual or a short episode of history But the modern student, knowing well themass of material that he has to collate, and dreading lest he may make a slip through overlooking someobscure or newly discovered source, dislikes to stir beyond the boundary of the subject, or the short period, onwhich he has made himself a specialist

Meanwhile the general reading public continues to ask for standard histories, and discovers, only too often,that it can find nothing between school manuals at one end of the scale and minute monographs at the other.The series of which this volume forms a part is intended to do something towards meeting this demand.Historians will not sit down, as once they were wont, to write twenty-volume works in the style of Hume orLingard, embracing a dozen centuries of annals It is not to be desired that they should the writer who is mostsatisfactory in dealing with Anglo-Saxon antiquities is not likely to be the one who will best discuss theantecedents of the Reformation, or the constitutional history of the Stuart period But something can be done

by judicious co-operation: it is not necessary that a genuine student should refuse to touch any subject thatembraces an epoch longer than a score of years, nor need history be written as if it were an encyclopaedia, andcut up into small fragments dealt with by different hands

It is hoped that the present series may strike the happy mean, by dividing up English History into periods thatare neither too long to be dealt with by a single competent specialist, nor so short as to tempt the writer toindulge in that over-abundance of unimportant detail which repels the general reader They are intended togive something more than a mere outline of our national annals, but they have little space for controversy orthe discussion of sources, save in periods such as the dark age of the 5th and 6th centuries after Christ, wherethe criticism of authorities is absolutely necessary if we are to arrive at any sound conclusions as to the course

of history A number of maps are to be found at the end of each volume which, as it is hoped, will make itunnecessary for the reader to be continually referring to large historical atlases tomes which (as we mustconfess with regret) are not to be discovered in every private library Genealogies and chronological tables ofkings are added where necessary

HENRY VII (i), 1485-1492-THE NEW DYNASTY 1485 Henry's Title to the Crown Measures to

strengthen the Title 1486 Marriage The King and his Advisers Henry's enemies 1487 Lambert

Simnel The State of Europe France and Brittany 1488 Henry intervenes cautiously England and

Spain 1489 Preparations for war with France Spanish treaty of Medina del Campo The Allies inert 1490.Object of Henry's Foreign Policy 1491 Apparent Defeat 1492 Henry's bellicose Attitude Treaty of

CHAPTER III

HENRY VII (iii), 1498-1509-THE DYNASTY ASSURED Scotland and England Henry's Scottish

Policy France and Scotland Relations in 1498 Marriage Negotiations; 1498-1503 Marriage of James IV.and Margaret, 1503 Spain and England; Marriage Negotiations, 1488-1499 France, 1499 Spain; MarriageNegotiations, 1499-1501 1501; the Spanish Marriage 1502 New Marriage Schemes 1504 The PapalDispensation The Earl of Suffolk; 1499-1505 1505 Henry's Position Schemes for Re-marriage 1506: TheArchduke Philip in England Philip's Death 1507-8 Matrimonial Projects The League of

Cambrai Wolsey 1509 Death of Henry

CHAPTER IV

HENRY VII (iv), 1485-1509 ASPECTS OF THE REIGN 1485; Henry's Position Studied Legality Policy

of Lenity Repression of the Nobles The Star-Chamber Henry's Use of Parliament Financial

Exactions Sources of Revenue Henry's Economics Trade Theories Commercial Policy The NetherlandsTrade The Hansa The Navigation Acts Voyages of Discovery The Rural Revolution The Church Henryand Rome Learning and Letters Appreciation

CHAPTER V

HENRY VIII (i), 1509-1527 EGO ET REX MEUS Europe in 1509 England's Position The New

King Inauguration of the reign Henry and the Powers 1512 Dorset's Expedition Rise of Wolsey 1513.The French War Scotland (1499-1513) The Flodden Campaign The Battle Its Effect Recovery of EnglishPrestige 1514 Foreign Intrigues The French Alliance and Marriage 1515 Francis I. Marignano 1516-7.European changes 1518-9 Wolsey's Success 1519 Charles V. The Imperial Election 1520 Wolsey'sTriumph Rival Policies Field of the Cloth of Gold Wolsey's Aims Charles V and Francis I. Scotland:1513-1520 1520-1 Affairs Abroad 1521 Buckingham Wolsey's Diplomacy 1522 A Papal Election Warwith France Scotland 1523 Progress of the War Election of Clement VII. 1524 Wolsey's

difficulties Intrigues in Scotland 1525 Pavia The Amicable Loan A Diplomatic struggle 1526-7

Wolsey's success A new Factor

CHAPTER VI

HENRY VIII (ii), 1509-1532 BIRTH OF THE REFORMATION _The Reformation in England_ Its trueCharacter Religious Decadence The Scholar- Reformers Ecclesiastical Demoralisation Monastic

Corruption The Proofs Corruption of Doctrine Evidence from Colet and More Later Evidence DeanColet His Sermon: 1512 Erasmus The _Utopia_: 1516 Exaggerated attacks Clerical

Privileges Tentative Reforms The Educational Movement Wolsey and the Reformation _The LutheranRevolt_: 1517 Luther's Defiance The Diet of Worms; 1521 The German Peasants' Revolt; 1524 Its Effect

in England 1525 The Empire and the Papacy The Sack of Rome, 1527 Diet of Augsburg, 1530-The SwissReformers; 1520-1530 English Heretics Abroad Contrasted Aims

Breaks Wolsey's fall 1530 Wolsey's Death His Achievement Appreciation of Wolsey

CHAPTER VIII

HENRY VIII (iv), 1529-1533 THE BREACH WITH ROME 1529 No Revolt Yet Growth of

Anti-clericalism Thomas Cranmer Appeal to the Universities The New Parliament Thomas

Cromwell Pope, Clergy, and King Double Campaign Opens 1530 Answer of Universities Preoccupation

of the Clergy Menace of Praemunire 1531 "Only Supreme Head" Proceedings in Parliament 1532.Parliament Supplication against the Ordinaries Resistance of Clergy "Submission of the

Clergy" Mortmain, Benefit of Clergy, and Annates The Powers and the Divorce The Turn of the

Year 1533 The Crisis Restraint of Appeals Cranmer Archbishop The Decisive Breach

CHAPTER IX

HENRY VIII (v), 1533-1540 MALLEUS MONACHORUM 1533 Ecclesiastical Parties Pope or

King? 1534 Confirmatory Acts The Pope's Last Word The Nun of Kent The Act of Succession The OathRefused The "Bishop of Rome" Parliament Treasons Act 1529-1534: The New Policy Thomas

Cromwell 1535 More and Fisher Cromwell Vicar General The German Lutherans Overtures Visitation

of the Monasteries 1536 Suppression of Lesser Houses The Evidence The Black Book The ConsequentCommission The Policy Anne Boleyn Threatened Her Condemnation and Death The

Succession Punishment of Heresy The Progressive Movement The Ten Articles The Lincolnshire

Rising The Pilgrimage of Grace Aske Beguiled 1537 Suppression of the Rising Turned to

Account Scotland, 1533-6 1536-7 Naval Measures 1537 An Heir 1538 Diplomatic Moves The ExeterConspiracy 1539 Cromwell Strikes Menace of Invasion The King and Lutheranism The Six Articles Final Suppression of Monasteries Royal Proclamations Act Anne of Cleves 1540 The Marriage Fall ofCromwell

CHAPTER X

HENRY VIII (vi), 1540-1547 HENRY'S LAST YEARS 1540 Katharine Howard The King his own

Minister England and the Powers Scotland and England; 1541 Cardinal Beton 1542 Solway

Moss 1543 Henry's Scottish Policy Alliance with Charles V. French War 1544 Domestic

Affairs Intrigues in Scotland Sack of Edinburgh French War Peace of Crepy 1545 Ancram Moor A

French Armada 1546 Peace concluded 1532-1549 _Europe_ Lutherans and the Papacy Conference ofRatisbon-Council of Trent: first stages Death of Luther-Charles and the League of Schmalkald The JesuitOrder Calvin _England_: the Ecclesiastical Revolution Progressives and Reactionaries 1543 The King'sBook-1546 Surrey 1547 Death of Henry.

CHAPTER XI

HENRY VIII (vii), 1509-1547 ASPECTS OF HENRY'S REIGN _Ireland_: 1509-1520 Surrey in Ireland,1520 Irish Policy, 1520-1534 Fitzgerald's Revolt 1535-1540: Lord Leonard Grey 1540: St Leger "King

of Ireland" _England_: Wolsey's work The Army The Navy The New World Absolutism The

Parliamentary Sanction Depression of the Nobles Parliament and the Purse Finance The Land Learningand Letters The _Utopia_ Surrey and Wyatt _Appreciation of Henry VIII._: Morals and

Character Abilities and Achievement Dominant Personality Conclusions

CHAPTER XII

EDWARD VI (i), 1547-1549 THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET 1547 The New Government Relationswith France and Scotland with Charles V. Somerset's Scottish Policy Pinkie The Advanced

Reformers Benevolent Legislation Ecclesiastical Legislation 1548 Progress of the

Reformation Somerset's Ideas The French in Scotland The Augsburg Interim Parliament 1549 A NewLiturgy The Treason of the Lord Admiral: 1547-9 1549 Troubles in the Provinces The Western

Rising Ket's Insurrection The Protector's Attitude The Council attacks him His Fall Ireland: St Legerand Bellingham

CHAPTER XIII

EDWARD VI (ii), 1549-1553 THE DUDLEY ASCENDANCY 1549 Foreign Relations State of

England 1550 Terms with France Protestant zeal of Warwick Treasons Act Protestant Fanaticism-1551.The Council and Charles V. His Difficulties Groups among the Reformers Somerset His final overthrow

1552 Execution of Somerset Pacification of Passau English Neutrality The Reformation: its Limitshitherto Revision of the Liturgy Nonconformity Parliament 1553 A New Parliament Northumberland'sProgramme Plot to change the Succession Adhesion of King and Council Death of Edward

VI. Willoughby and Chancellor

Elizabeth Subsequent Severities The Marriage Treaty-Pole, Renard, and Gardiner Public

Tension Parliament; Reconciliation with Rome Reaction consummated, 1555

CHAPTER XV

MARY (ii), 1555-1558-THE PERSECUTION Mary's early Policy The Persecution Who was

Responsible? Comparison with other Persecutions Some Characteristic Features 1555 The First

Martyrs Trial of Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Fate of Cranmer His Record and Character Policy ofPhilip Paul IV. Mary disappointed of an Heir A New Parliament Gardiner's Death and Character Mary'sDifficulties 1556 The Dudley Conspiracy Foreign Complications 1557 War with France 1558 Loss ofCalais National Depression Mary's Death and Character

CHAPTER XVI

ELIZABETH (i), 1558-1561-A PASSAGE PERILOUS

1558 Accession Mary Stewart's Claim Strength of Elizabeth's Position Sir William Cecil Finance Philip

II and Elizabeth's Marriage The Religious Question A Protestant Policy 1559 Parliament: Act of

Supremacy The Prayer-Book France and Peace State of Scotland Arran and Elizabeth The ArchdukeCharles Wynter in the Forth 1560 Difficulties of France Vacillations of Elizabeth Siege of Leith Treaty

of Edinburgh Elizabeth's Methods The Dudley Imbroglio The Huguenots The Pope 1561 Return ofMary to Scotland

CHAPTER XVII

ELIZABETH (ii), 1561-1568-QUEENS AND SUITORS 1561 The Situation Council of Trent France;State of Parties 1561-8 France: Catholics and Huguenots The Netherlands: Philip's Policy Prelude toWar 1561 The Queens' suitors 1562 Mary in Scotland 1562-3 Elizabeth and the Huguenots The EnglishSuccession-1564 Darnley and Others 1565 The Darnley Marriage Mary and Murray 1566 The Murder

of Rizzio 1567 Kirk o' Field The Bothwell Marriage Mary at Loch Leven Murray Regent 1568

Langside, and the Flight to England 1562-8 Protestantism of Elizabeth's Government Religious

Parties 1566-7 Parliament and the Queen's Marriage The Queen and the Archduke

Parliament Collapse of the Anjou Match The Ridolfi Plot Develops 1572 Parliament and Mary

Stewart Lepanto The Netherlands Revolt The Alençon Match St Bartholomew

CHAPTER XIX

ELIZABETH (iv), 1572-1578 VARIUM ET MUTABILE Elizabeth's Diplomacy The Queen's

Subjects Development of Protestantism 1572 Katharine de Medici The Aim of Elizabeth England andthe Massacre Spain seeks Amity 1573 A Spanish Alliance Scotland: End of the Marian Party The

Netherlands, France, and Spain The Netherlands, England, and Spain 1574 Amicable Relations of Englandand Spain 1575 A Deadlock 1576 Attitude of the Nation The Queen evades War Alençon and the

Huguenots The Netherlands and Don John Elizabeth's Attitude 1577 The Political Kaleidoscope The

Archduke Matthias 1578 Mendoza Orange and Alençon Death of Don John NOTE: The PortugueseSuccession.

CHAPTER XX

ELIZABETH (v), 1558-1578 IRISH AND ENGLISH 1549-58 1558 Shan O'Neill The Antrim

Scots 1560-1 Shan and the Government 1562 Shan in England 1563-5 Shan's supremacy in Ulsterrecognised 1566 Sir Henry Sidney Deputy Overthrow of O'Neill Catholicism in Irish Politics 1568 TheColonising of Munster 1569 Insurrection in Munster Ireland and Philip Experimental

Presidencies 1573-4 Essex in Ulster 1576-8 Sidney's second Deputyship

CHAPTER XXI

ELIZABETH (vi), 1578-1583 THE PAPAL ATTACK 1579 The Union of Utrecht 1578 The MatrimonialJuggle Alençon's wooing 1579 Popular Hostility to the Match Loyalty to Elizabeth Yea and Nay ThePapal Plan of Campaign 1580 Philip annexes Portugal _Ireland_: 1579; the Desmond Rising 1580: Fireand Sword Development of the Rebellion Smerwick: and after _Scotland_: 1579-1581 _England_:1580 The Jesuit Mission Walsingham at Work 1581 An Anti-papal Parliament Alençon redivivus Hisvisit to England 1582 Alençon in the Netherlands 1583 Exit Alençon Scotland

CHAPTER XXII

ELIZABETH (vii), 1583-1587-THE END OF QUEEN MARY 1583 Throgmorton's Conspiracy Catholicsabroad sanguine Division in their Counsels The Plot discovered 1584 Assassination of Orange The

"Association" 1585 Its Ratification France: The Holy League Elizabeth's agreement with the

States Drake's Cartagena Raid Elizabeth's Intrigues-1586 Leicester in the Netherlands The Trapping ofMary Babington's Plot Trial of the Queen of Scots Elizabeth and Mary 1587 Execution of Mary

ELIZABETH (ix), 1587-1588-THE ARMADA 1587 Results of Mary's Death Attitude of Philip Attitude

of Elizabeth The situation Drake's Cadiz Expedition Negotiations with Parma Elizabeth's

Diplomacy French Affairs Preparations for the Armada 1588 Plans of Campaign Forces of the

Antagonists The New Tactics Defective Arrangements The Land Forces May to July The Fleets offPlymouth The Fight off Portland The Fight off the Isle of Wight Effect on the Fleets The Armada atCalais The Battle off Gravelines Flight and Ruin of the Armada

CHAPTER XXV

ELIZABETH (x), 1588-1598-BRITANNIA VICTRIX After the Armada A new Phase Death of

Leicester France, 1588-9 England aggressive Alternative Naval Policies Don Antonio Plan of the LisbonExpedition 1589 The Expedition; Corunna and Peniche The Lisbon Failure Policies and Persons France,1589-1593 1590 Death of Walsingham The Year's Operations 1591 Grenville's Last Fight France,1590-3 Operations, 1592-4 Survey, 1589-94 Spain and the English Catholics Scottish Intrigues Ireland:1583-1592 Tyrone, 1592-4 1595 Drake's Last Voyage 1596 The Cadiz Expedition Ireland The SecondArmada 1597 The Island Voyage 1598 Condition of Spain Death of Philip Death of Burghley:

Appreciation

CHAPTER XXVI

ELIZABETH (xi), 1598-1603 THE QUEEN'S LAST YEARS A new Generation 1598 Ireland The Earl ofEssex 1599 Essex in Ireland His Downfall Catholic Factions Philip III. 1600 Ireland SuccessionIntrigues The End of Essex Robert Cecil 1601 Ireland: Rebellion broken 1602 The Succession LastIntrigues 1603 Death of Elizabeth

CHAPTER XXVII

ELIZABETH (xii), 1558-1603 LITERATURE Birth of a National Literature _Prose_: before

1579 1579-1589 _Euphues_ Sidney Hooker _Verse_: before 1579 1579-1590 _Drama_: beforeElizabeth early Elizabethan _The Younger Generation>_: pervading Characteristics Displayed in theDrama and other Fields Breadth of view Patriotism Normal Types

CHAPTER XXVIII

ELIZABETH (xiii), 1558-1603 ASPECTS OF THE REIGN Features of the Reign _Religion_: State andChurch The State and the Catholics The Church and the Puritans Archbishop Whitgift The

Persecutions _Economic Progress_ Retrenchment Wealth and Poverty Trade Restrictions and

Development _Travellers_ Maritime Expansion _The Constitution Elizabeth_: her People her

Ministers Appreciation

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A TABLES

I CONTEMPORARY RULERS 1475-1542 II CONTEMPORARY RULERS 1542-1603 III THE

LENNOX STEWARTS IV HOWARDS AND BOLEYNS V HABSBURGS VI VALOIS AND

BOURBONS VII GUISES DESCENDANTS OF EDWARD III THE PORTUGUESE SUCCESSIONAPPENDIX B

CLAIMS TO THE THRONE

APPENDIX C

THE QUEEN OF SCOTS

APPENDIX D

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MAPS

I THE WORLD: AS KNOWN circa 1485-1603 II WESTERN EUROPE: circa 1558 III ENGLAND AND

IRELAND IV SPANISH AMERICA: _circa 1580 V THE LOW COUNTRIES AND THE CHANNEL THEFLODDEN CAMPAIGN

INDEX

ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS

INTRODUCTION

THE TUDOR PERIOD, 1485-1603

[Sidenote: An era of Revolutions]

The historian of the future will, perhaps, affirm that the nineteenth century, with the last years of the

eighteenth, has been a period more fraught with momentous events in the development of the nations than anyequal period since the Christian era commenced Yet striking as are the developments witnessed by the lastfour generations, the years when England was ruled by Princes of the House of Tudor have a history hardly if

at all less momentous For though what we call the Tudor period, from 1485 to 1603, is determined by amerely dynastic title affecting England alone, the reign of that dynasty happens to coincide in point of timewith the greatest territorial revolution on record, a religious revolution unparalleled since the rise of

Mohammed, and an intellectual activity to match which we must go back to the great days of Hellas, orforward to the nineteenth century: revolutions all of them not specifically English, but affecting immediatelyevery nation in Europe; while one of them extended itself to every continent on the globe Moreover, theaccompanying social revolution, though comparatively superficial, was only a little less marked than theothers Nor was there any country in Europe more influenced by the general Revolution in any one of itsaspects than England

Nihil per saltum is no doubt as true of historical movements as of physical evolution Before Columbus

sighted Hispaniola, Portuguese sailors had told tales of some vast island seen by them far in the west

Botticelli had passed out of Filippo Lippi's school, and Leonardo was thirty, before Raphael was born; theprinting press had reached England, and Greek had been re-discovered, in the last years of the previous

"period"; the Byzantine Empire had fallen; the power of the old Baronage in England and France had beenbroken before Richard fell on Bosworth field There were Lollards at home and Hussites abroad before Luthercame into the world The changes did not begin in 1485, or in any particular year In Italy the intellectualmovement had already long been active, and had indeed produced its best work; outside of Italy, its

appearances had been quite sporadic At that date, the Ocean movement was in its initial stages There hadbeen foreshadowings of the Reformation; and, to speak metaphorically, the castles which had maintained thepower of the nobility, overshadowing the gentry and the burghers, were already in ruins But the fame ofevery one of the great English names which are landmarks in every one of these great movements belongsessentially to the years after 1485 And every one of those movements had definitely and decisively set itsmark on the world before Elizabeth was laid in her grave

[Sidenote: The Intellectual Movement]

The intellectual movement to which we apply the name Renaissance in its narrower sense [Footnote: In themore inclusive sense the Renaissance of course began in the time of Cimabue and Dante, but it was not till thelatter half of the fifteenth century that it became a pervading force outside of Italy.] has many aspects.

Whatever views we may happen to hold as to schools of painting and architecture, it is indisputable that arevolution was wrought by the work of Raphael and Leonardo, Michael Angelo and Titian, and the crowd oflesser great men who learned from them The limitations imposed on Art by ecclesiastical conventions weredeprived of their old rigour, and it was no longer sought to confine the painter to producing altar pieces andglorified or magnified missal-margins The immediate tangible and visible results were however hardly to befound outside of Italy and the Low Countries; and if English domestic architecture took on a new face, it wasthe outcome rather of the social than the artistic change: since men wanted comfortable houses instead offortresses to dwell in The Renaissance in its creative artistic phase touched England directly hardly at all

On its literary side, the movement was not creative but scholarly and critical, though a great creative

movement was its outcome In the earlier period the name of Ariosto is an exception; but otherwise thegreatest of the men of Letters are perhaps, in their several ways, Erasmus and Macchiavelli abroad and

Thomas More in England Scholars and students were doing an admirable work of which the world was much

in need; displacing the schoolmen, overturning mediaeval authorities and conventions, reviving the

knowledge of the mighty Greek Literature which for centuries had been buried in oblivion, introducing freshstandards of culture, spreading education, creating an entirely new intellectual atmosphere An enormousimpulse was given to the new influences by the very active encouragement which the princes of Europe, layand ecclesiastical, extended to them, the nobility following in the wake of the princes The best literary brains

of the day however were largely absorbed by the religious movement The great imaginative writers, unless

we except Rabelais, appear in the latter half of the sixteenth century Tasso and Camoens and Cervantes,

[Footnote: Don Quixote did not appear till 1605; but Cervantes was then nearly sixty.] Spenser and Marlowe

and Shakespeare, as well as Montaigne But even in the first half of the century, Copernicus enunciated thenew theory that the Sun, not the Earth, is the centre of the astronomical system; and before the end of ourperiod, the new methods had established themselves in the field of science, to be first formulated early in thenew century by one who had already mastered and applied them, Francis Bacon Essentially, the modernScientific Method was the product of the Tudor Age

[Sidenote: The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation]

For many centuries, Christendom had in effect been undivided There had indeed been a time when it wasuncertain whether the Arian heresy might not prevail over orthodoxy, but that was a thousand years ago TheByzantine Church later had separated from the Roman on a subtle point of Theology; but in spite of variousdissensions, and efforts on the part of kings and of Churches which may be called national to assert a degree

of independence, all Western Europe had acknowledged the supremacy of the papacy; and though reformershad arisen, the movements they initiated had either been absorbed by orthodoxy or crushed almost out ofsight The Tudor period witnessed that vast schism which divided Europe into the two religious camps,labelled with the usual inaccuracy of party labels Catholic and Protestant: the latter, as time went on, failinginto infinite divisions, still however remaining agreed in their resistance to the common foe Roughly veryroughly in place of the united Christendom of the Middle Ages, the end of the period found the Northern,Scandinavian, and Teutonic races ranged on one side, the Southern Latin races on the other; and in bothcamps a very much more intelligent conception of religion, a much more lively appreciation of its relation tomorals The intellectual revolution had engendered a keen and independent spirit of inquiry, a disregard oftraditional authority, an iconoclastic zeal, a passion for ascertaining Truth, which, applied to religion, crashedagainst received systems and dogmas with a tremendous shock rending Christendom in twain But the

Reformers were not all on one side; and those who held by the old faiths and acknowledged still the oldmysteries included many of the most essentially religious spirits of the time If the Protestants won a newfreedom, the Catholics acquired a new fervour and on the whole a new spirituality For both Catholic andProtestant, religion meant something which had been lacking to latter-day mediaevalism: something for which

it was worth while to fight and to die, and a much harder matter than dying to sever the bonds of friendship

and kinship That these things should have needed to be done was an evil; that men should have become ready

to do them was altogether good The Reformation brought not peace but a sword; Religion was but one of themotives which made men partisans of either side; yet that it became a motive at all meant that they hadrealised it as an essential necessity in their lives

[Sidenote: The New World]

It is hardly necessary to dwell at length on the magnitude of the maritime expansion; the Map [Footnote: SeeMap 1] is more eloquent than words In 1485 the coasts that were known to Europeans were those of Europe,the Levant, and North Africa Only such rare adventurers as Marco Polo had penetrated Asia outside theancient limits of the Roman Empire In 1603, the globe had been twice circumnavigated by Englishmen.Portuguese fleets dominated the Indian waters; there were Portuguese stations both on the West Coast of Indiaand in the Bay of Bengal; Portuguese and Spaniards were established in the Spice Islands whence there was

an annual trade round the Cape with the Spanish Peninsula: the English East India Company was alreadyincorporated, and its first fleet, commanded by Captain Lancaster, had opened up the same waters for Englishtrade Mexico and Peru and the West Indies were Spanish posses-*

** Two pages missing from original book here

[Sidenote: Nobility, clergy and gentry]

In the business of managing the Estates, the problem was further simplified to the Tudors because

circumstances enabled them arbitrarily to replenish their treasuries largely from sources which did not woundthe susceptibilities of the Commons Henry VII could victimise the nobles by fines or benevolences, andHenry VIII could rob the Church, without arousing the animosity of the classes which were untouched; whileneither the nobility nor the clergy were strong enough for active resentment In each case the King made hisprofit out of privileged classes which got no sympathy from the rest who did not grudge the King money solong at least as they were not asked to provide it themselves, and in fact felt that the process diminished thenecessity for making demands on their own pockets

The disappearance of the old almost princely power of the greater barons, completed by the repressive policy

of Henry VII., with the redistribution of the vast monastic estates effected by his son, were the leading factorswhich changed the social and political centre of gravity The old nobility were almost wiped out by the civilwars; generation after generation, their representatives had either fallen on the battlefield, or lost their heads

on the scaffold and their lands by attainder The new nobility were the creations of the Tudor Kings, lackingthe prestige of renowned ancestry and the means of converting retainers into small armies With the exception

of the Howards, scarce one of the prominent statesmen of the period belonged to any of the old powerfulfamilies For more than forty years the chief ministers were ecclesiastics; after Wolsey's fall, the Cromwells,Seymours, Dudleys, and Pagets, the Cecils and Walsinghams, and Bacons, the Russels, Sidneys, Raleighs,and Careys, were of stocks that had hardly been heard of in Plantagenet times, outside their own localities Itwas the Tudor policy to foster and encourage this class of their subjects, who from the Tudor times onwardprovided the country with most of her statesmen and her captains, and in the aggregate mainly swayed herfortunes At the same time the political influence of the Church was reduced to comparative insignificance bythe treatment of the whole hierarchy almost as if it were a branch, and a rather subordinate branch, of the civiladministration; by the appropriation of its wealth to secular purposes, to the enrichment of individuals and ofthe royal treasury; and by the suppression of the monastic orders The effect of this last measure, limiting theclerical ranks to the successors of the secular clergy, was to restrict them much more generally to their

pastoral functions; and at any rate after the death of Gardiner and Pole, no ecclesiastic appears as indubitablyfirst minister of the Crown, and few as politicians of the front rank England had no Richelieu, and no

Mazarin Lastly while the diminution in the importance of the ecclesiastical courts increased the influence ofthe lay lawyers, the great development in the prosperity of the mercantile classes, due in part at least to thedeliberate policy of the Tudor monarchs, led in turn to their wealthy burgesses acquiring a new weight in the

national counsels which, however, did not take full effect till a later day.

[Sidenote: International relations]

Finally we have to observe that in this period the whole system of international relations underwent a

complete transformation At its commencement, there was no Spanish kingdom; there was no Dutch

Republic; the unification even of France was not completed; England had a chronically hostile nation on hernorthern borders; the Moors still held Granada; the Turk had only very recently established himself in Europe,and his advance constituted a threat to all Christendom, which still very definitely recognised one

ecclesiastical head in the Pope, and very much less definitely one lay head in the Emperor Elizabeth's deathunited England and Scotland at least for international purposes; France and Spain had each become a

homogeneous state; Holland was on the verge of entering the lists as a first-class power The theoretical status

of the Emperor in Europe had vanished, but on the other hand, the co-ordination of the Empire itself as aTeutonic power had considerably advanced The Turk was held in check, and the Moor was crushed: but onehalf of Christendom was disposed to regard the other half as little if at all superior to the Turk in point ofTheology The nations of Western Europe had approximately settled into the boundaries with which we arefamiliar; the position of the great Powers had been, at least comparatively speaking, formulated; and the ideahad come into being which was to dominate international relations for centuries to come the political

conception of the Balance of Power

CHAPTER I

HENRY VII (i), 1485-92 THE NEW DYNASTY

[Sidenote: 1485 Henry's title to the Crown]

On August 22nd, 1485, Henry Earl of Richmond overcame and slew King Richard III., and was hailed asKing on the field of victory But the destruction of Richard, an indubitable usurper and tyrant, was only thefirst step in establishing a title to the throne as disputable as ever a monarch put forward To establish thattitle, however, was the primary necessity not merely for Henry himself, but in the general interest; whichdemanded a secure government after half a century of turmoil

Henry's hereditary title amounted to nothing more than this, that through his mother he was the recognisedrepresentative of the House of Lancaster in virtue of his Beaufort descent from John of Gaunt, [Footnote: See

Front and Appendix B The prior hereditary claims of the royal Houses of Portugal and Castile and of the

Earl of Westmorland were ignored.] father of Henry IV.; whereas the House of York was descended in thefemale line from Lionel of Clarence, John of Gaunt's elder brother, and in unbroken male line from the

younger brother Edmund of York On the simple ground of descent therefore, any and every member of theHouse of York had a prior title to Henry's; the most complete title lying in Elizabeth, eldest daughter ofEdward IV.; while the young Earl of Warwick, son of George of Clarence, was the first male representative,and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, son of Edward's sister, had been named by Richard as heir presumptive.But Henry could support his hereditary title, such as it was, by the actual fact that it was he and not a Yorkistwho had challenged and overthrown the usurper Richard

[Sidenote 1: Measures to strengthen the title] [Sidenote 2: 1486 Marriage]

Now the idea that the rivalry of the Houses of York and Lancaster should be terminated and their union beeffected by the marriage of the two recognised representatives had been mooted long before But in Henry'sposition, it was imperative that he should assert his own personal right to the throne, not admitting that heoccupied it as his wife's consort His strongest line was to claim the Crown as his own of right and procure the

endorsement of that claim from Parliament, [Footnote: The intricacies of descent, and the position of thecrowd of hypothetical claimants, are set forth in detail in Appendix B, and the complete genealogical chart

(Front.).] as Henry IV had done on the deposition of Richard II He could then without prejudice to his own

title effectively bar other rivals by taking as his consort Elizabeth of York; since the Yorkists, as a group,would at any rate hesitate to assert priority of title to hers for either Warwick or De la Pole (who in fact neverhimself posed as a claimant for the throne) In accordance with this plan of operations, the contemplatedmarriage with Elizabeth of York was in the first instance postponed as a matter for later consideration Henry

proceeded forthwith to London, entering the City laetanter, amidst public rejoicings; [Footnote: Gairdner,

Memorials of Henry VII., p xxvi, where a curious misapprehension is explained for which Bacon is mainly

responsible.] writs for a new Parliament being issued a few days later The coronation took place on October30th; a week afterwards Parliament met, and an Act was promptly passed, declaring without giving anyreasons, which might have been disputed that the "inheritance of the Crowns of England and France be, rest,remain and abide, in the person of our now Sovereign Lord, King Harry the Seventh, and in the heirs of hisbody" This was sufficiently decisive; but the endorsement of Henry's title in the abstract was confirmed byfurther enactments which assumed that he had been King of right, before the battle of Bosworth (thus

repudiating title by conquest), since they attainted of treason those who had joined Richard in levying waragainst him Thus Henry had affirmed his own inherent right to the throne; and had hedged that round with anunqualified parliamentary title In the meantime he had also disqualified one possible figure-head for theYorkists by lodging the young Earl of Warwick in the Tower It remained for him to convert the other andprincipal rival into a prop of his own dignities by marrying Elizabeth of York Accordingly he was formallypetitioned by Parliament in December to take the princess to wife, to which petition he graciously assented,and the union of the red and white roses was accomplished in January Any son born of this marriage would inhis own person unite the claims of the House of Lancaster with those of the senior branch of the House ofYork

[Sidenote: The King and his advisers]

It is difficult to think of the first Tudor monarch as a young man; for his policy and conduct bore at all timesthe signs of a cautious and experienced statesmanship Nevertheless, he was but eight and twenty when hewrested the kingdom from Richard His life, however, had been passed in the midst of perpetual plots andschemes, and in his day men developed early whereof an even more striking example was his son's

contemporary, the great Emperor Charles V Young as Henry was, there was no youthful hot-headedness inhis policy, which was moreover his own But he selected his advisers with a skill inherited by his son; and themost notable members of the new King's Council were Reginald Bray; Morton, Bishop of Ely, who soon afterbecame Archbishop of Canterbury and was later raised to the Cardinalate; and Fox, afterwards Bishop ofDurham and then of Winchester, whose services were continued through the early years of the next reign.Warham, afterwards Archbishop, was another of the great ecclesiastics whom he promoted, and before hisdeath he had discovered the abilities of his son's great minister Thomas Wolsey For two thirds of his reign,however, Bray and Morton were the men on whom he placed chief reliance

[Sidenote: Henry's enemies]

Difficult as it was after Henry's union with Elizabeth to name any pretender to the throne with even a

plausible claim, Bosworth had been in effect a victory for the Lancastrian party, and many of the Yorkistswere still prepared to seize any pretext for attempting to overthrow the new dynasty Not long after the

marriage, Henry started on a progress through his dominions; and while he was in the north, Lord Lovel andother adherents of the late king attempted a rising which was however suppressed with little difficulty Aconsiderable body of troops was sent against the rebels, while a pardon was proclaimed for all who forthwithsurrendered Many of the insurgents came in; the promise to them was kept Of the rest, one of the leaders wasexecuted, Lovel escaping; but the affair, though abortive, illustrated the general atmosphere of insecuritywhich was to be more seriously demonstrated by the insurrection in favour of Lambert Simnel in the

following year some months after the Queen had given birth to a son, Prince Arthur

Outside Henry's own dominions, the Dowager Margaret of Burgundy, widow of Duke Charles the Bold andsister of Edward IV., was implacably hostile to Henry, and her court was the gathering place of dissatisfiedYorkist intriguers Within his realms, Ireland, where the House of York had always been popular, offered aperpetual field in which to raise the standard of rebellion, any excuse for getting up a fight being generallywelcomed In that country the power of the King's government, such as it was, was practically confined to thelimits of the Pale and within those limits depended mainly on the attitude of the powerful Irish noble,

Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, who held the office of Deputy

[Sidenote: 1487 Lambert Simnel]

At the close of the fifteenth century accurate information did not travel rapidly, but vague rumours werereadily spread abroad Rumours were now rife that one of the princes murdered by Richard III had reallyescaped and was still living; and on the other hand that the boy Warwick was dead in the Tower Some onedevised the idea of producing a fictitious Richard of York, or Warwick A boy of humble birth named

Lambert Simnel was taught to play the part, carried over to Ireland, and produced after some hesitation as theEarl of Warwick Presumably the leaders of the Yorkists intended to use the supposititious earl only until thereal one could be got into their hands; but Lincoln, who certainly knew the facts, espoused the cause of thepretender, in complicity with Lovel and Margaret of Burgundy In Ireland, Simnel was cheerfully and withpractical unanimity accepted as the king, and a band of German mercenaries, under the command of MartinSwart, was landed in that country to support him; though in London the genuine Warwick was paradedthrough the streets to show that he was really there alive Lincoln, who had first escaped to Flanders, joinedthe pretender; they landed in Lancashire in June Within a fortnight, however, the opposing forces met atStoke, and after a brief but fierce conflict the rebel army, mainly composed of Irish and of German

mercenaries, was crushed, Lincoln and several leaders were slain, and their puppet was taken captive Henry'saction was the reverse of vindictive, for Simnel was merely relegated to a position, appropriate to his origin,

in the royal kitchen, and was subsequently promoted to be one of the King's falconers Kildare, [Footnote: The

narrative in the Book of Howth gives the impression that Kildare was at Stoke, and was made prisoner; but

this is probably a misinterpretation arising from a lack of dates.] in spite of his undoubted complicity in therebellion and the actual participation therein of his kinsmen, was even retained in the office of Deputy

Twenty-eight of the rebels, however, were attainted in the new Parliament which was summoned in

November, the Queen's long-deferred coronation taking place at the same time

The same Parliament is noteworthy as having given a definitely legal status to the judicial authority of theCouncil by the establishment of the Court thereafter known as the Star Chamber, of which we shall hear later.Besides this, however, it had the duty of voting supplies for embroilments threatening on the Continent.The complexities of foreign affairs form so important a feature in the history of the next forty years that it isimportant to open the study of the period with a clear idea of the position of the Continental powers

[Sidenote: The state of Europe]

Lewis XI., the craftiest of kings, had died in 1482, leaving a tolerably organised kingdom to his young sonCharles VIII., under the regency of Anne of Beaujeu With the exception of the Dukedom of Brittany, whichstill claimed a degree of independence, and of Flanders and Artois which, though fiefs of France, were stillruled by the House of Burgundy, the whole country was under the royal dominion; which had also absorbedthe Duchy of Burgundy proper The daughter of Charles the Bold, wife of Maximilian of Austria, inherited as

a diminished domain the Low Countries and the County of Burgundy or Franche Comté

East of the Rhine, the kingdoms, principalities, and dukedoms of Germany owned the somewhat vagueauthority of the Habsburg Emperor Frederick, but the idea of German Unity had not yet come into being Onthe south-east the Turks who had captured Constantinople some thirty years before (1453) were a militant andaggressive danger to the Empire and to Christendom; while the stoutest opponent of their fleets was Venice

Switzerland was an independent confederacy of republican States: Italy a collection of separate

States dukedoms such as Milan, kingdoms such as Naples, Republics such as Venice and Florence, with thePapal dominions in their midst In the Spanish peninsula were the five kingdoms of Navarre, Portugal, theMoorish Granada, Aragon, and Castile The last two, however, were already united, though not yet mergedinto one, by the marriage of their respective sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella Sardinia and Sicily wereattached to Aragon

Finally we have to note that Maximilian, son of the Emperor, had married Mary of Burgundy; but on Mary'sdeath the Netherlanders recognised as their Duke not Maximilian but his young son Philip the father

exercising only a very precarious authority as the boy's guardian; while the Dowager Margaret, the secondwife of Charles the Bold, the lady whose hostility to the House of Lancaster has been already noted, possessedsome dower-towns, and considerable influence In 1486 Maximilian was elected "King of the Romans," inother words his father's presumed successor as Emperor

[Sidenote: France and Brittany]

For the time, then, the consolidation of France was more advanced than that of any other Power; her desirewas to complete the process by the absorption of Brittany Spain, i.e., Castile and Aragon, had made

considerable progress in the same direction, but for her the conquest of Granada was still the prime necessity.The absorption of Brittany, however, was opposed alike to the interests of Maximilian, of the Spanish

monarchs, and of England To the former two, any further acquisition of power by France was a possiblemenace To the last, France was traditionally the enemy, and if Breton ports became French ports, the strength

of France in the Channel would be almost doubled Henry personally was under great obligations both toFrance and to Brittany, especially to France; but political exigencies evidently compelled him to favour themaintenance of Breton independence

During 1487 France had been carrying on active hostilities in Brittany, but the results had been small and atreaty had been signed Lewis, Duke of Orleans, and others of the French nobility who were hostile to theregency of Anne of Beaujeu, were actively promoting the Breton cause within the dukedom; there was nolonger an active French party there; and now that Henry in England had suppressed the Simnel rising Francebecame anxious to secure English neutrality But, if Henry could not keep clear of the complication

altogether; if once the parties in the contest began appealing to him; he was liable to find himself forced totake part with one side or the other Hence the necessity for calling upon Parliament to vote money for

armaments

[Sidenote: 1488 Henry intervenes cautiously]

Thus in the opening months of 1488 we find Henry on the one hand fitting out ships, and on the other offeringfriendly mediation both to France and to Brittany: while his policy was not simplified by the unauthorisedinterposition of his queen's uncle Edward Woodville, who secretly sailed with a band of adventurers to

support the Bretons Henry repudiated Woodville's action, and extended the existing treaty of peace withFrance to January, 1490 In the same month (July, 1488) the Bretons suffered a complete defeat, and the Dukewas obliged to sign a treaty on ignominious terms Within a fortnight, however, the Duke was dead, and hisdaughter Anne, a girl of twelve, succeeded him

The result was the renewal of war; since Anne of Beaujeu and the Breton Marshal de Rieux both claimed thewardship of the young Duchess, for whose hand the widower Maximilian was already a prominent suitor.Now up to this point Henry had refused to adopt a hostile attitude towards France, and had treated overturesfrom Maximilian with frigidity But in six months' time he was concluding alliances both with Brittany andwith Maximilian

[Sidenote: England and Spain]

The determining factor in this change of attitude, practically involving a French war, is probably to be found

in Henry's relations with Spain It was of vital importance to him to get his dynasty recognised in an emphaticform by foreign Powers In Spain under its very able rulers he saw the most valuable of allies, and during thefirst half of 1488 he had made it his primary concern to procure the betrothal of his own infant son Arthur totheir infant daughter Katharine And virtually his hostility to France was the price they demanded The

preliminaries were settled in July, 1488; the treaty was not definitively signed till March of the next year; and

as the essential nature of the Spanish requirements became more apparent, Henry found himself compelled toaccept active antagonism to France as part of the bargain With his subjects, a French war was always secure

of a certain popularity, though the provision of funds for it would entail a degree of opposition Moreover,though foreign wars might give extreme malcontents their opportunity, it is a commonplace of politics thatthey distract attention from domestic grievances Thus it is easy to perceive how the benefits of the Spanishalliance would very definitely turn the scale And we shall still find that Henry had no intention of expending

an ounce of either blood or treasure which might be saved consistently with the ostensible fulfilment of theSpanish Compact

[Sidenote 1: 1489 Preparations for war with France] [Sidenote 2: Spanish treaty of Medina del Campo]

So in December, 1488, Henry was sending friendly embassies to all the Powers, but while that to France wasmerely offering mediation, the envoy to Brittany was offering military assistance on terms In January a newParliament was asked for, and after considerable debate granted, £100,000 In February the embassy to

Maximilian concluded an alliance for mutual defence; while that to Brittany pledged Henry to defend theyoung Duchess, but exacted in return the occupation by the English of sundry military positions in the duchy,and the right to forbid any marriage or alliance except with Maximilian or Spain Then in March the Spanishtreaty was completed: whereof the terms were very significant The children were to be betrothed If Spaindeclared war on France, England was to support her Spain might retire independently if she recovered thesmall districts of Roussillon and Cerdagne, which had been surrendered (though only in pledge) to Lewis XI.;England might similarly withdraw if she got back Guienne a very much more visionary prospect Otherwise,one was not to retire without the other being equally satisfied If England attacked France, Spain was to help;but occupied as she was with Granada the amount of aid likely to be forthcoming was problematical In brief,Henry was prepared to pay for the marriage, and Spain could exact a high price

France then was occupied in the west with the contest in Brittany, and in the north she was supporting theFlemings in their normal resistance to Maximilian The English could use Calais as a base for operations onthis side, and also began to throw troops into Brittany Incidentally there was a rising in the north of Englandheaded by Sir John Egremont, of which the pretext was resistance to the levying of taxes; this, however, didnot take very long to suppress, nor was any one of importance involved in it Still the hostilities with Francewere carried on in a very half-hearted fashion; being confined to defensive operations in Brittany which weresupposed to be no violation of the peace recently prolonged to January, 1490

[Sidenote: The allies inert]

Henry was satisfied to make a show of fighting, and Spain made no haste to help him, England not beingformally at war As early as July, Maximilian, shiftiest and most impecunious of princes, concluded at

Frankfort an independent treaty with France; who agreed to give up the places she occupied in Brittany ifHenry were compelled to withdraw his garrisons; while there were signs that she might cede Roussillon andthus deprive Henry of his claim to Spanish support Within the duchy itself, the Marshal de Rieux and hisward were in a state of antagonism; since he wished her to marry the Sieur D'Albret, a powerful Gascon noblewho was not too submissive to the French monarchy; while the Duchess declared she would rather enter aconvent Anne at last announced her adhesion to the treaty of Frankfort; but as Henry had no intention ofevacuating his forts, nothing particular resulted The English King could not afford simply to drop the contest,

and when the New Year came in, he demanded and obtained from Parliament fresh supplies for carrying onthe war.

[Sidenote: 1490 Object of Henry's foreign policy]

The game Henry had to play in 1490 was a sufficiently difficult one: and he played it with consummate skill

He meant to hold his position in Brittany until he received adequate indemnities; he had to satisfy his ownsubjects that he was not going to draw back before the power of France; and he had to carry out the letter ofhis obligations to Spain under the treaty of the previous March, On the other hand, he had in fact no ambitiousmilitary projects, and while Spain abstained from sending active assistance in force, she could not complain if

he merely stood on the defensive The Duchess, finding herself no better off for accepting the Frankfort treaty,adopted the alternative policy of throwing herself on his protection So he welcomed a mediatorial embassyfrom the Pope and showed no unwillingness to negotiate, but continued to strengthen his own position; while

he could exhibit a sound reason for abstaining from aggressive action and still accumulate war-funds

By Midsummer France had enlarged her demands since the treaty of Frankfort, requiring the withdrawal ofthe English from Brittany as a preliminary not to her own withdrawal but to arbitration on her claims InSeptember the shifty King of the Romans reverted to an alliance with Henry for mutual defence; and thescheme of his marriage with the Duchess Anne was pressed on Marshal de Rieux had by this time becomereconciled to the Duchess, thrown over D'Albret, and come into agreement with Henry At this time,

moreover, Henry ratified publicly the Spanish treaty which had been accepted by Ferdinand and Isabella

eighteen months before; but he also submitted an alternative treaty [Footnote: Busch, England under the

Tudors pp 59, 330; and Gairdner's note, p 438.] (which Spain rejected) modifying the portions which placed

the contracting Powers on an unequal footing By this step he forced the Spanish monarchs to resign anypretence of having treated him generously or having placed him under an obligation; and the step itself wassignificant of the increased confidence he had acquired in the stability of his own position In DecemberMaximilian was married by proxy to Anne whom he had never seen and not long afterwards she assumedthe style of Queen of the Romans

[Sidenote: Apparent defeat of Henry's policy]

Ostensibly, the object of Henry's diplomacy had failed Spain had rejected his proposals: and the direct results

of Anne's marriage were that the activity of France was renewed; Spain, with the pretext of the Moorish war

to plead, was less inclined than ever to render assistance; Maximilian as a matter of course proved a brokenreed; D'Albret, his pretensions being finally shattered, surrendered Nantes to the French by arrangement.England was apparently to bear the entire brunt of the war Henry was justified in appealing to his subjects forevery penny that could be raised, and resorted to "benevolences" an insidious method of extortion which hadbeen declared illegal in the previous reign, but under the existing abnormal conditions could hardly be

resisted A great demonstration of warlike ardour was made, on the strength of which Spain was urged topledge herself to throw herself into the war next year with more energy and on more reasonable terms than theexisting treaty of Medina del Campo provided for But in the meantime the French were reducing Brittany,and held the Duchess besieged in Rennes The French King, Charles VIII., proposed that the marriage with ahusband whom she had never seen should be annulled, and the dispute be terminated by his wedding herhimself Resistance seemed hopeless; Anne assented; the necessary dispensations were secured from Rome,and Anne of Brittany became Queen of France

[Sidenote: 1492 Henry's bellicose attitude]

Now the defence of Brittany had been the primary ground of England's quarrel with the French; with Henryhimself, however, this object had been secondary to the matrimonial alliance with Spain, from which the latterwas now not likely to withdraw Henry, moreover, had made use of the whole affair to acquire a full

money-chest; and since it was of vital importance that this should be done without turning his subjects against

him, it had been necessary to lend the war as popular a colour as possible Hence it was part of his policy toemphasise at home as his ultimate end the recovery of the English rights in the French Crown, so successfullyutilised by his predecessor Henry V in the first quarter of the century It would have been manifestly

dangerous for him in establishing his dynasty to recede from a claim which both Yorkists and Lancastrianshad maintained Incidentally also, there was the matter of indemnities owing to him by Anne of Brittany forwhich Maximilian had been made responsible

[Sidenote 1: France makes peace] [Sidenote 2: Treaty of Etaples (Dec.)]

Since then it was impracticable simply to retire, the alternative course was to demonstrate; and Henry spentthe greater part of 1492 in making the greatest possible display of preparation for war on a great scale with aview to obtaining satisfying terms of peace The one real piece of military work taken in hand was the siegeand capture of Sluys in Flanders (in conjunction with Albert of Saxony, on behalf of Maximilian); from whichport much injury of a piratical order had been wrought upon English merchants Meantime negotiations hadbeen carried on, but with no appearance of success At last in October the King actually crossed the Channel

to take command of the army of invasion; and sat down before Boulogne Then on a sudden the air cleared.Charles in fact did not want a serious English war, out of which he could make nothing But he had developed

a very keen ambition to enter Italy and win the Crown of Naples Henry by himself, or even in conjunctionwith the much offended Maximilian, was hardly likely to penetrate very far into France, if the forces of thatkingdom were arrayed against him; but while he threatened, Charles could not move on Italy; moreover, hispresence was an encouragement to those of the nobility whose allegiance was doubtful So the French Kingresolved to buy off the English King at his own price Lewis XI., threatened by Edward IV., had agreed to paywhat Edward called a tribute, in return for which he held his claim to the French throne in abeyance Henryneed have no qualms about following his Yorkist predecessor's example Beyond that, Charles was prepared

to pay off the Brittany indemnities Thus Henry secured Peace with Honour and a solid cash equivalent for hisexpenditure; besides being able to silence the complaints of the warlike by emphasising the gravity of

embarking on a great campaign with winter coming on He threw over Maximilian, but the faithlessness of theKing of the Romans was so palpable and notorious that at the worst Henry was only paying him back in hisown coin As to Spain, Henry knew that the monarchs had been endeavouring to negotiate a separate peace,and they had never carried out their part of the contract So far as he was breaking engagements with hisallies, their own conduct had given him ample warrant The event had justified Henry's management of a verydifficult situation The Peace of Etaples was ratified in December; and Henry emerged from the war withEngland's continental prestige restored to a respectable position, a full treasury, and his throne in Englandinfinitely more secure than it had been three years before He was never again driven to enter upon a foreignwar; and now the appearance of Perkin Warbeck on the scene, though it kept England in a state of uneasinessfor some years, was incomparably less dangerous than it would have proved at an earlier stage

high in favour with the House of York It had been the practice for the English kings to appoint a nominalabsentee governor, whose functions were discharged by a Deputy; and Kildare was Deputy under both

Edward IV and Richard

[Sidenote: 1487-92 The Earl of Kildare]

Henry, on his accession, had seen that the one chance of keeping the country in any degree quiet lay in

securing Kildare's allegiance and support; and proposals for his continuation in the office of Deputy had beenunder discussion when Lambert Simnel was hailed as King and crowned, with the open support not only ofKildare but of nearly all the barons and bishops It did not suit Henry's policy to attempt punishment underthese conditions; he preferred conciliation; and after Stoke, Kildare was retained as Deputy, when he andSimuel's principal adherents had sworn loyalty In 1490 Henry had found it necessary to reprimand Kildarefor sundry breaches of the law, commanding his presence in England within ten months Kildare made nomove, but at the end of the ten months wrote to say that he could not possibly come over, as the state of thecountry made his presence there imperative The letter was written in the name of the Council, and signed byfifteen of its members This was backed by another letter from Desmond and other nobles in the south-west,declaring that they had persuaded the Deputy that the peace of Ireland quite forbade his departure

Probably it was much about this period that is, some time in 1491 that a new claimant to Henry's throne(Perkin Warbeck) appeared in the south-west of Ireland, declaring himself to be that Richard Duke of Yorkwho was reported to have been murdered in the Tower along with his brother Edward V Desmond espousedhis cause, while Kildare and others coquetted with him Agents from Desmond and the pretender visited thecourt of the young King of Scots James IV., in March, 1492, and in the summer Charles VIII., whose

territories Henry was then ostentatiously preparing to invade, invited the young man over to France where hewas received as the rightful King of England The conclusion of peace, however, at the end of the year, made

it necessary for the French King to withdraw his countenance from Henry's enemies; and the pretender retired

to the congenial atmosphere of the court of Margaret of Burgundy In the meantime Kildare, whose complicitywith Desmond it had become impossible entirely to ignore, had been deprived of his office, and a new Deputyappointed

[Sidenote 1: 1491 Perkin Warbeck's appearance] [Sidenote 2: Riddle of his imposture]

The self-styled Richard of York is known to history as Perkin Warbeck The account of his early careersubsequently given to the world in his own confession is generally accepted as genuine The son of a Tournaiboatman, he served during his boyhood under half a dozen different masters in three or four Netherland citiesand in Lisbon At the age of seventeen he took service with one Prégent Meno, a Breton merchant, and

incidentally appeared at Cork where he paraded in costly array Such was the effect of his appearance andbearing that the citizens of Cork declared he must be a Plantagenet Taxed with being in reality either the Earl

of Warwick or an illegitimate son of Richard III., he swore he was nothing of the kind; but his admirersdeclared that in that case he could only be Richard of York, who had somehow been saved from sharing hisbrother's fate in the Tower Perkin found himself unable to resist such importunity, accepted the dignity thrustupon him, and set himself to learn his part The partisans of the White Rose had shown in the case of LambertSimnel their preference for even a palpable impostor bearing their badge, as compared with the objectionableTudor; and a genuine Duke of York would have the advantage of a claim stronger even than that of his sisterElizabeth, Henry's queen Perkin, however, must have acted up to his part with no little skill to have

maintained himself as a plausible impostor up to the time when Margaret of Burgundy received him eventhough he met no one in whose interest it was to pose him with inconvenient questions So apt a pupil wouldthen have had little difficulty in assimilating the instructions of Margaret; and, after a couple of years' trainingwith her, in at least supporting his role with plausibility That Perkin himself told this story is not very

conclusive, since the confession was produced under circumstances quite compatible with the whole thinghaving been dictated to him; yet difficult as it is to believe, it is less incredible than the alternative that hewas the real duke, who had been smuggled out of the Tower eight years before he was produced, and kept in

concealment all through the interval, even while the Yorkist leaders had been reduced to setting up a

supposititious Earl of Warwick for a figurehead

[Sidenote: 1492-95 Perkin and Margaret of Burgundy]

It certainly does not seem that on Perkin's appearance in Ireland he had any active supporters outside thatcountry, or that he caused any perturbation in Henry's mind Foreign princes, whether they regarded him asgenuine or as an impostor, would certainly not espouse his cause unless they were at enmity with Henry EvenCharles VIII made no haste to lend him countenance until it seemed almost certain that there was to be a warwith England on a great scale; and he had no hesitation in dismissing the pretender when peace was

concluded; while the Spanish sovereigns, though quite ready to intrigue against their Tudor ally, had nointention of committing themselves to an open breach with him The peace, however, which dismissed Perkinfrom France, gave him a zealous adherent in the person of Maximilian, who was now filled with a righteousanimosity to Henry; and the young lord of the Netherlands, his son Philip, Duke of Burgundy, declared that hehad no power to control the Dowager Margaret, dwelling on her own estates So Perkin made her court hishead-quarters a useful tool for the weaving of Yorkist intrigues Henry might, if he would, have legitimately

founded a casus belli on this attitude, but he preferred to institute a commercial war; from which, however,

the English merchants suffered little less than the Flemings

In 1493 the Emperor died, and was in effect succeeded by the King of the Romans, though his election to theImperial throne did not take place for some years Maximilian, however, remained impecunious and

inefficient; Charles VIII was giving his entire attention to his Italian projects; the whole affair of PerkinWarbeck was carried on mainly below the surface on both sides, by a process of mining and counter-mining.Henry was well served by Sir Robert Clifford and others, who wormed themselves into the confidence of theYorkist plotters, revealing what they learnt to the King When the time was ripe (January, 1495), Henry's handfell suddenly on the unsuspecting conspirators in England; whose chiefs, including Sir William Stanley, whowas supposed to be one of the King's most trusted supporters, were sent to the block It was this same SirWilliam Stanley who, striking in at Bosworth on the side of Henry, had been mainly instrumental in decidingthe fortunes of the day; and he had been rewarded with the office of Chamberlain

[Sidenote: Diplomatic intrigues]

During the two years following the Treaty of Etaples Charles VIII had early made his peace also with Spain

by the treaty of Barcelona and with Maximilian by that of Senlis The desired provinces, Roussillon andCerdagne, were restored to Ferdinand and Isabella, who adopted a distant attitude to Henry The French King,free to follow his own devices, entered Italy towards the close of 1494, marched south without opposition, andwas crowned at Naples in February, 1495, the reigning family fleeing before him So early and important anaccession of strength to the French Crown had hardly been anticipated, and the European sovereigns madehaste to form a League against France Spain was desirous of bringing England into the league; but the

wayward Maximilian was still determined to support Perkin Warbeck, apparently thinking that by substituting

a Yorkist prince for Henry he would secure a more amenable ally

[Sidenote: 1492-95 Ireland]

Meanwhile, Ireland also had been undergoing judicious treatment Kildare, removed from the Deputy-ship in

1492, came over to England to give an account of himself in the following year Here he was detained until, inthe autumn of 1494, the King appointed a new three-year-old Governor in the person of his second son Henry,whom he also created Duke of York, making Sir Edward Poynings Deputy Poynings was an experienced andcapable soldier, who had been in command before Sluys in the recent campaign; and on his departure forIreland Kildare went with him Both the ex-Deputy and the Earl of Ormonde promised to render loyal service;but it was no very long time before Kildare was sent back to England under accusations of treason We mayhere anticipate matters by observing that this was the last case of misbehaviour on his part He won his way

once more into the royal favour, and when Poynings left Ireland in 1496 Kildare yet again went back asDeputy, which office he retained for the remainder of Henry's reign, and a portion of his son's also.

It is curious to observe in the turbulent Deputy traits of that audacious humour which we are wont to regard aspeculiarly Irish: a characteristic fully appreciated by the English King When taken to task for burning theCathedral at Cashel, he is reported to have said that he would not have done so, only the bishop was inside.His casual announcement on a previous occasion that he could not obey the royal summons to Englandbecause the country could not get on without him was paralleled either in 1493 or 1495 it is uncertainwhich by his defence against the Bishop of Meath's charges He said he must be represented by Counsel; theKing replied that he might have whom he would "Give me your hand," quoth the Earl "Here it is," said theKing "Well," said Kildare, "I can see no better man than you, and by St Bride I will choose none other." Saidthe Bishop, "You see what manner of man he is All Ireland cannot rule him." "Then," said the King, "he must

be the man to rule all Ireland."

[Sidenote: Poynings in Ireland 1494-96]

The government of Poynings was not prolonged, but it was very much to the point "Poynings' Law," passed

by the Parliament assembled at Drogheda in December, 1494, fixed Constitutional procedure for a very longtime Irish Parliaments were to be summoned only with the approval of the King's Council in England, andonly after it had also approved the measures which were to be submitted to them by the Irish Deputy andCouncil In effect, however, these legislative functions at this time were hardly more limited than those ofEnglish Parliaments, which were summoned at the King's pleasure, and only had what might be called

"Government Bills" submitted to them The royal Council was practically in the position of a Cabinet holdingoffice as representing not the parliamentary majority but the King's personal views The Parliament mightdiscuss and accept or reject, but had not as yet acquired a practical initiative itself At the same time that thislaw was passed, a declaratory Act abolished the theory which had grown up at an early stage of the conflictbetween the White and Red Roses, of regarding Ireland as a country where a rebel in England was a free man:

a notion which had greatly facilitated the intrigues of both Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck on Irish soil.Further, besides some enactments for checking feudal customs which tended to disorder, it was ordained thatthe principal castles should always be under the command of Englishmen Poynings also endeavoured, bybestowing pensions (on terms) on some of the principal chiefs outside the Pale such as O'Neill in Ulster andO'Brien in the west to convert their position into one of semi-official responsibility to the official

Government A basis for the maintenance of law and order having thus been provided, the Irish difficulty wassolved for the time when "the man to rule all Ireland," benevolently disposed to a King who had shown that heknew the right way to take him, was restored to the office of Deputy

[Sidenote: 1495 Survey of the situation]

In the early spring, then, of 1495, this was the position of affairs Perkin Warbeck lay at the court of Margaret

of Burgundy; but his plans had been upset by Clifford's information and the punishment of the ringleaders inEngland Poynings was in Ireland, and the prospect of keeping that country in reasonable order was unusuallypromising Charles VIII had just made himself master of Naples; and the Spanish sovereigns (who hadcompleted the destruction of the Moorish dominion in Granada some three years earlier) were now occupied

in forming with the Pope, Venice, Milan, and Maximilian the Holy League against French aggression; intowhich they were anxious to draw Henry, whose weight if thrown into the other scale would be of considerablevalue to France For the last two years, since the treaty of Barcelona, they had evaded the recognition orreconstruction of any compact with England; but under the changed conditions, while they would not admitthat the old engagements were binding, they offered to frame new treaties for Henry's inclusion in the League,

at the same time confirming the project of the marriage between their daughter Katharine and the Prince ofWales Henry, however, was now in a much stronger position at home; and though he desired the Spanishalliance, he had no intention of allowing that bait to seduce him into making himself a cat's-paw France wasoffering a counter-inducement in the shape of a marriage with the daughter of the Duke of Bourbon; Henry

indicated that while Maximilian was fostering the pretensions of the impostor Warbeck, it was not seriouspolitics to talk of being associated with him in the League Spain might make promises on Maximilian'sbehalf, but could not ensure that he would keep them.

[Sidenote: 1495 Warbeck attempts invasion]

Time was working in Henry's favour In July (1495) an expedition sailed from Flanders to place Perkin on theEnglish throne Maximilian's hopes were high: he bragged to the Venetians that the "Duke of York" wouldimmediately unseat the Tudor, and when he was on the throne, England would be at the beck of the League.The Emperor's impracticability was sufficiently shown by his having procured from Perkin his own

recognition as heir, if the pretender should die without issue The expedition attempted to land at Deal, but themen of Kent assembled in arms, and drove it off with ignominious ease For once Henry was severe, and put

to death no fewer than 150 of Warbeck's followers, who had been taken prisoners Warbeck himself did noteven set foot on the realm he claimed, but made for Ireland where he had first been so warmly welcomed.Here his old supporter Desmond took up his cause again, and Waterford was attacked by sea and land; butthere was no general rising, and Poynings had no difficulty in raising the siege Foiled both in England andIreland, Perkin now betook himself to Scotland to obtain the help of the young King, James IV

[Sidenote: Success of Henry's diplomacy]

The affair showed conclusively how small was the danger in England of a Yorkist rising in favour of thepretender a fact very fully recognised by Ferdinand and Isabella, though Maximilian clung pertinaciously tohis protégé Moreover, the position of the League was somewhat precarious, since both Ludovico Sforza,Duke of Milan, and the Venetians, were suspected with justice of readiness to make their own terms withFrance It was more than ever necessary to bring Henry into the combination; and Henry, still diplomaticallysuave, was less than ever prepared to accept conditions which would fetter him inconveniently He would notcommit himself to make war on France except at his own time; and Maximilian must definitely and

conclusively repudiate Warbeck At last in July, 1496, the new League was concluded Henry's diplomacyachieved a distinct triumph His alliance had been won, but only on his own terms; all he wished to secure hadbeen secured The Spanish sovereigns were so far from feeling that they could make a tool of him that theywere in considerable trepidation lest he should still throw them over if a tolerably legitimate excuse offered,and were anxious to do all they could to conciliate him without betraying the full extent of their fears Henryhad already, in February, terminated the commercial war with the Flemings by the treaty with Philip known as

the Intercursus Magnus, which included a proviso against the admission into Philip's territories of rebels

against the English King

[Sidenote: 1496 Warbeck and the King of Scots]

When Perkin Warbeck made his way to Scotland the young King of that country was already fully informed

as to the nature of his claims James, when a boy of sixteen, had taken part in the rebellion headed by DouglasEarl of Angus, in which his father the late King had been overthrown at Sauchie Burn and murdered after thebattle He was now twenty-four years of age, of brilliant parts, no mean scholar, an admirable athlete, andambitious to raise the name of Scotland among the nations His weakness lay mainly in a boyish

impulsiveness, which often caused him to mar well-laid plans on the spur of the moment, and in an

exaggerated fondness for chivalric ideas more appropriate to a knight-errant than to a king or a leader ofarmies Perkin appealed to him as early as 1492; and before the pretender's expedition sailed, Tyrconnel, chief

of the O'Donnells of the north-west of Ireland, presented himself in Scotland to renew the appeal The

antagonism of Scottish feeling to the ruling powers in England was chronic There was a treaty of peacebetween England and Scotland, but the unfailing turbulence of the borders kept each country constantlyprovided with a tolerable excuse for accusing the other of having broken its engagements James was wellwithin his rights in receiving the claimant; of the justice of whose title he evidently persuaded himself, since

he bestowed a kinswoman of his own upon him in marriage, Lady Katharine Gordon In the summer of 1496

he was making active preparations for an incursion into England on Warbeck's behalf; largely influenced nodoubt by the promise that, should it prove successful, Berwick, which had been finally ceded to Englandfourteen years before, was to be once more surrendered to the Scots The astute Henry turned all this toaccount, by impressing on the Spanish and Venetian agents the urgent necessity laid on him to abstain frommilitary operations against France while Scotland was so threatening.

[Sidenote 1: A Scottish incursion (Sept.)] [Sidenote 2: 1497]

James did in fact raid the North of England in September; but the incursion was a raid and nothing more.Perkin, to the surprise and even contempt both of Scots and English, protested against the sanguinary methods

of border warfare, on behalf of the people whom he aspired to rule over But the people themselves wouldhave none of him The expedition withdrew without having produced even the semblance of a Yorkist rising.After that, James no longer felt eager to plunge into a war on behalf of the pretender: but was inclined toretain him as a political asset When, in the following year (1497), Charles VIII. with a precisely similarobject in view offered him a considerable sum if he would send his guest over to France, the Scots Kingdeclined In July, however, Perkin sailed from Scotland, apparently with intent to try Ireland again, whereKildare was once more Deputy Henry had utilised the raid to obtain the recommendation of a large grant andloans from the Great Council forthwith; Parliament, which was called for January (1497), ratifying the grant

as a subsidy The raising of the loans had, however, been proceeded with, without waiting

[Sidenote: The Cornish rising]

The defence of England against invading Scots was a matter of much importance to the northern counties, butlacked personal interest in Cornwall Year after year the King had been receiving subsidies to arm for

impending wars, borrowing, and levying benevolences When a hostile France was the excuse, the populationmight murmur but was quite as willing to pay as could reasonably be expected But the Scots had neverinvaded Cornwall, and the Cornishmen felt that it was time to protest They would march to

London peaceably, of course to demand according to custom the removal of the King's evil counsellors;Morton and Bray, to wit, who probably used their influence in reality to mitigate rather than intensify theroyal demands The insurgent leaders were a blacksmith, Joseph, and a lawyer, Flamock appropriate chiefsfor working men trying honestly enough to formulate what they had been led to regard as a grievance of what

we should now call an unconstitutional character With bills and bows, some thousands of them started ontheir march; preserving their peaceable character, till at Taunton the appearance of a commissioner for

collecting the tax proved too much for their self-restraint, and the man was killed A little later they werejoined by Lord Audley, who became their leader They expected the men of Kent, who of old had risen underWat Tyler and again under Jack Cade, to take up the cause: but Kent did not recognise the similarity of thepresent conditions and gave them no welcome

[Sidenote: The suppression (June)]

Meantime, Henry had not been idle; but he saw that the insurgents were not rousing the country as theyprogressed, and therefore he judged that the further they were drawn away from their own country the better.Except for a slight skirmish at Guildford, the Cornishmen were not actively interfered with till they encamped

on Blackheath Then, on June 17th, the royal forces proceeded to envelop them Some two thousand wereslain on the field Audley, the lawyer, and the blacksmith, were put to death as traitors; the rest were

pardoned, as having been not so much rebels as victims of demagogic arts

[Sidenote: Warbeck's final failure (Sept.)]

The policy of leniency was not entirely successful, for the Cornishmen imagined it merely meant that the Kingrecognised the impossibility of dealing sternly with every one who thought as they did Warbeck, now inIreland, where he was not finding the sympathy for which he had hoped, received messages to the effect that

if he came to Cornwall he would find plenty of supporters He came promptly, with a scanty following

enough; but only a few thousand men joined him He marched on Exeter, but that loyal town stoutly refused

to admit him, and his attempts to carry gates and walls failed completely Royal troops were on the march: thegentlemen of Devon, headed by the Earl, were up for the King Perkin marched to Taunton, and then fled bynight to take sanctuary at Beaulieu in Hampshire, where he was surrounded, and very soon submitted himself

to the King's clemency

[Sidenote: The Scottish truce]

In the meantime the Scottish King, though his sentiments towards Perkin had sensibly cooled, had no

intention of leaving him in the lurch, and had advanced on Norham Castle very shortly after his protégé hadsailed for Ireland The Earl of Surrey, however, who commanded in the north, was well prepared, and verysoon took the field with twenty thousand men James was obliged to withdraw, and though he challenged theEarl to single combat with Berwick as the stake, Surrey replied that Berwick was not his property but hismaster's, and he must regretfully decline the proposed method of arbitrament He advanced over the border,making some captures and doing considerable damage; but after a week, commissariat difficulties made himretire in turn In September Perkin's Cornish rising collapsed, and a seven years' treaty was entered uponbetween the two countries

[Sidenote: The end of Perkin Warbeck 1497-99]

Towards the pretender and his followers, the King behaved with his usual leniency A few leaders only wereput to death; other penalties were reserved Warbeck was compelled publicly to read at Exeter and later inLondon a confession of the true story of his own origin and that of the conspiracy; and was then relegated tonot very strict confinement under surveillance His supporters were allowed to purchase their pardon by heavyfines, which satisfactorily aided in the replenishment of the royal treasury

The end of the pretender's story may be told in anticipation It was ignominious and less creditable in itsaccompanying circumstances to Henry In the summer of the next year, 1498, Perkin tried to escape, waspromptly recaptured, set in the stocks, and required to read his confession publicly both in Westminster andLondon He was then placed in strict confinement in the Tower, where the luckless Warwick had been kept aprisoner for thirteen years The son of Clarence, still little more than a boy, was the only figure-head left forYorkist malcontents Another attempt to impersonate him by a youth named Ralph Wilford was nipped in thebud at the beginning of 1499; but Henry's nerve seems to have been seriously shaken by it, and probably henow began to make up his mind to get rid of his kinsman Then some kind of conspiracy was concocted, inwhich both Warbeck and Warwick were involved; on 23rd November, 1499, Perkin was hanged, and fivedays later Warwick was beheaded, dying as he had lived a victim to his name; suffering for no treason orwrong-doing of his own, but simply because he was the nephew of Edward IV

[Sidenote: 1498 The situation]

When the year 1497 closed, the preliminaries of a Scottish peace had been agreed upon; Perkin Warbeck was

a prisoner: and the French King had already found his position in Italy untenable, and agreed to evacuateNaples and surrender the crown His death and the accession of the Duke of Orleans as Lewis XII in April ofthe next year further altered the face of international politics, already changing with the final collapse ofWarbeck and his disappearance as a pawn in the game

CHAPTER III

HENRY VII (iii), 1498-1509-THE DYNASTY ASSURED

[Sidenote: Scotland and England]

From time immemorial almost, it might be said that Scotland had been a perpetual menace to her southernneighbour Since the days of Bruce she had, it is true, been torn by ceaseless dissensions; a succession of longroyal minorities with intrigues over the regency, family feuds between the great barons, strong kings whofound themselves warring on a turbulent nobility, weak ones who could exercise no control, had not given thecountry much chance of consolidation; but the one binding sentiment that could be relied on in a crisis wasantagonism to England To settle the question by conquest had been proved impossible Scotland might beover-run, but she could not be held in subjection If England's eyes were bent on France, she must still manage

to keep a watch on the north: but so long as dissensions were raging, there was not much fear of anythingmore serious than raiding expeditions

[Sidenote: Henry's Scottish policy]

To keep Scotland innocuous was a primary object with the Tudor King At the time when he grasped thesceptre of England, the King of Scots, James III., was a feeble ruler surrounded by unpopular favourites, with

a baronage preparing to rise against him, and there was little danger to be apprehended He was over-thrownand murdered in 1488 But James IV, who succeeded to the throne was of a different type He was only a boy,however, and Henry was not long in initiating a policy, more fully developed by his descendants, of

purchasing the support of leading nobles, notably at this time and for forty years to come, the Earls of

Angus-with whom there was a compact as early as 1491 James, however, soon proved himself a popular andvigorous monarch, of a type which attracted the loyalty of his subjects, with a strong disposition to make hiscountry a serious factor in the politics of the time, and by no means devoid of political sagacity despite hisunfortunate impulsiveness and want of balance To block Scotland out of the field by the simple process ofkeeping her thoroughly occupied with internal factions was not practicable under these conditions, and theattitude of James in the affair of Perkin Warbeck showed that he must be taken into serious account Henry'spolitical acuteness recognised in alliance with Scotland a more hopeful solution of the national problem than

in eternal strife The idea of a matrimonial connexion had indeed once before, since the days of Edward I.,taken shape in the union of James I to Jane Beaufort; but with little practical effect This idea Henry revived

in a form destined ultimately to revolutionise the relations of the two kingdoms His own eldest daughterMargaret was but eighteen years younger than the King of Scots quite near enough for compatibility Fromthe time of the peace entered upon after Warbeck's capture, Henry began to work with this marriage as one ofhis objects His foresight and sagacity is marked by the fact that he recognised and did not shrink from thepossibility that a Scottish monarch might thus one day find himself heir to the throne of England

[Sidenote 1: France and England] [Sidenote 2: 1498]

The peace-policy towards Scotland was facilitated by the development of friendly relations with France,especially after the accession of Lewis XII.: for the traditional "auld alliance," between France and Scotland,had proved times out of mind too strong to be over-ridden by English treaties If France wanted Scottish help,

or Scotland wanted French help, there was always some excuse for rendering it; the plain truth being that notreaties could restrain the forays and counter-forays of the border clans on both sides of the Tweed, whetherthe Wardens of the Marches winked at them or not; so that there was, in either country, a standing pretext fordeclaring that the other had broken truce An instance of these border difficulties occurred within a fewmonths of the truce of December, 1497 A small party of Scots crossed the border, and appeared in the

neighbourhood of Norham They were challenged, and replied with insolence or with proper spirit, according

to the point of view Thereupon they were attacked by superior numbers; some were slain; in the pursuit,damage was done on the north side of the border The Scots King felt that he had been outraged, and was onthe verge of breaking off all negotiations with his brother of England It required all the diplomatic skill ofFox (at this time Bishop of Durham), and the mediatorial efforts of the Spaniard Ayala to prevent a seriousbreach from resulting

[Sidenote: Marriage negotiations, 1498-1503]

The opportunity, however, was seized by Fox to emphasise his master's pacific intentions by bringing forwardthe proposal for the marriage of James with Margaret Nevertheless, for the next twelve months, Henrydisplayed no eagerness in the matter Margaret was only in her eighth year, so that in any case the marriagecould not be completed for some time; but apart from that, there was already existing a project of marriagebetween James and one of the Spanish princesses which Spain had no real wish to carry out, while Jameswas disposed to push it It would appear, therefore, that Henry meant to give effect to his own scheme, but didnot intend Spain to feel free of the complication while it could be used as a means of pressure

[Sidenote: Marriage of James IV, and Margaret 1503]

At last, however, in July, 1499, a fresh treaty of peace was concluded with Scotland, but it was not till

January, 1502, that the marriage treaty was finally ratified; the marriage to take place in September, 1503(when Margaret would be nearly thirteen), and the two Kings to render each other mutual aid in case either ofthem was attacked James, however, declined to bind himself permanently to refuse renewal of the Frenchalliance There was much characteristic haggling over dower and jointure, matters in which the Tudors alwaysdrove the hardest bargain they could The ceremony was performed by proxy, after the fashion of the times,the day after the treaty was ratified; and the actual marriage took place at the time fixed, in the autumn of1503 a momentous event, since it brought the Stuarts into the direct line of succession, next to descendants ofHenry in the male line; and inasmuch as one of Henry's sons had no children, and the other no

grandchildren ultimately united on one head the Crowns of England and Scotland, exactly one hundred yearsafter the marriage

[Sidenote: Spain and England: marriage negotiations, 1488-99]

In the meantime the other and much older project for the union between the Prince of Wales and a daughter ofSpain had been carried out Originally, Henry's prime motive in this matter had been to secure a decisiverecognition of his dynasty by the sovereigns, whom he regarded as the greatest political force in Europe Bythis time, however, (1498), the stability of his throne and of the succession was no longer in peril; but Spainwas still the Power whose alliance would give the best guarantees against hostile combinations Neither Spainnor England wished to be involved in war with France; but neither country could view her aggrandisementwith complete equanimity At the same time, while her ambitions were chiefly directed to Italy both couldafford for the most part to abstain from active hostilities On the other hand, times had changed since Henryhad been ready to go almost cap-in-hand to Ferdinand and Isabella for their support The Spanish sovereignswere now quite as much afraid of his joining France as he was of any step that they could take So the

marriage treaty was ratified in 1497 on terms satisfactory enough to Henry; and both in 1498 and 1499 proxyceremonies took place In the latter year, clauses left somewhat vague in the earlier treaties were given aclearer definition in a sense favourable to Henry

[Sidenote: 1499 Lewis XII]

The accession of Lewis XII in 1497 affected French policy Lewis required in the first place, to gain thefriendship of the Pope Alexander VI., in order to obtain a divorce from his wife and a dispensation to marryCharles's widow, Anne of Brittany, so as to retain the duchy In the second place, he claimed Milan as his own

in right of his descent from Valentina Visconti (not as an appanage of the French Crown) He was anxiousthen to conciliate both Spain and England, and ready to make concessions to both in order to hold themneutral His first steps, therefore, aimed at satisfying them, and at detaching the Archduke Philip from hisfather Maximilian; all of which objects were rapidly accomplished, England obtaining the renewal of thetreaty of Etaples, with additional undertakings in the matter of harbouring rebels Lewis made separate treatieswith Spain and with Philip; but the former remained none the less anxious on the score of a possible further

rapprochement between France and England.

[Sidenote: The Spanish marriage negotiation, 1499-1501]

So long as Perkin Warbeck had been able to pose as Richard of York, he was necessarily, to all who believed

in him, the legitimate King of England Setting him aside, it was still possible to argue for the Earl of

Warwick as against his cousin Elizabeth, Henry's queen But when Perkin and Warwick were both put todeath at the end of 1499, there was no arguable case for any one outside Henry's own domestic circle Even if

it were held that Henry's title was invalid, and that a woman could not herself reign in her own right,

Elizabeth's son had indisputably a title prior to any other possible claimant It was stated, though the truth ofthe statement is doubtful, that the Spanish sovereigns had never felt at ease as to the stability of the Tudordynasty till November, 1499; but, at any rate, after that date they could not even for diplomatic purposespretend to feel any serious apprehensions The year 1500 presents the somewhat curious spectacle of Henry

on one side and Ferdinand and Isabella on the other, each quite determined to carry through the marriage ofArthur and Katharine, but each also determined to make a favour of it In this diplomatic contest, Henryproved the more skilful bargainer, though the Spaniards were adepts He frightened them not a little by

crossing the Channel and holding a conference with the Archduke Philip, which was suspected of having forits object the negotiation of another marriage for the Prince of Wales with Philip's sister (Maximilian's

daughter) Margaret, who was already a widow [Footnote: Margaret had been married to Don John, son ofFerdinand and Isabella; while Philip married their second daughter Joanna Their eldest daughter married thePortuguese Infant.] In fact, there was no such intention; but an agreement was actually made that PrinceHenry should many Philip's daughter, while the youngest Tudor princess, Mary, should be betrothed toPhilip's infant son Charles, then a babe of four months, in after years the great Emperor Charles V

[Sidenote: Marriage of Prince Arthur and Katharine 1501]

So the marriage treaty was once more ratified But it was not till the summer of the next year (1501) thatKatharine sailed from Spain; and in November the actual marriage took place with no little display It isprobable, however, that Arthur and Katharine were still husband and wife in name only when, six monthslater, the Prince of Wales was stricken with mortal illness and died; leaving his brother Henry heir to thethrone, and a fresh crop of matrimonial schemes to be matured

[Sidenote 1: 1502 New marriage schemes] [Sidenote 2: 1504 Dispensation granted]

The truth was that Ferdinand of Aragon and Henry of England were men of very much the same type Bothwere crafty diplomatists, cautious and long-headed, not to be inveigled into rash schemes, keenly suspicious,masters of the art of committing themselves irrevocably to nothing; both had a keen appreciation of the value

of money, and were experts at striking a bargain; while each wanted the political support of the other Eachhad been working up to the matrimonial alliance which was now nullified by Arthur's death Ferdinand hadalready paid over half his daughter's dower; he now declared that the Princess and her dower ought to bereturned to Spain Henry argued on the other side that the balance of the dower should be paid over TheSpaniards then proposed that the young widow should be betrothed to the still younger prince, Henry; but at acomparatively early stage in the negotiations over the new project, Henry's own queen died (February, 1503),and it was no long time before the English King began to contemplate a new marriage for himself He is evensaid [Footnote: Gairdner, _Henry VII._ (_Twelve English Statesmen_), p 190 The rumour was current, but it

is doubtful whether it was more than a rumour; _cf._ Busch, p 378.] to have thought of proposing that heshould take his own son's widow to wife Logically, of course, as a mere question of affinity, the idea was notmore inadmissible than that of Katharine's marriage with Henry Prince of Wales; but it was infinitely morerepellent, and Isabella was horrified at the suggestion At any rate, nothing came of it, and an agreement forthe marriage of Katharine with the younger Henry was ratified in the course of the year [Footnote: It was inthe August of this same year (1503) that the other marriage, between James of Scotland and Henry's elderdaughter Margaret, was finally concluded.] subject, of course, to a papal dispensation This was obtained,during 1504, from the successor of Alexander VI., Pope Julius II., and Isabella had the satisfaction of seeing itbefore her death Political exigencies had only recently been accepted by Pope Alexander as justifying a

dispensation for the divorce of Lewis XII from his wife, to enable him to marry Anne of Brittany; but thisdispensation of Pope Julius was destined to an immense importance in history to be the hinge whereonswung open the gates of the English Reformation.

[Sidenote: 1499-1506 Affairs on the Continent]

The years from 1498 to 1503 had not been without importance in Franco- Spanish relations, more particularlywith reference to the position of the two Powers in Italy Lewis had made himself master of Milan in 1499;but the kingdom of Naples presented a more difficult problem; since, after disposing of the reigning family,the French King would still find a rival claimant in Ferdinand of Spain In 1500 these two monarchs agreed to

a partition; but French and Spaniards quarrelled, war broke out, the Spanish captain Gonsalvo de Cordovaexpelled the French; and in 1508 Naples was annexed to Aragon A renewed attempt of France upon Naples

in the following year proved a complete failure

In 1503 died the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI. poisoned, as it was believed, by the cup he had intended for

another The personal wickedness of Alexander and his relatives was the climax of papal iniquity, the reductio

ad absurdum of the claim of the Roman Pontiff to be the representative of Christ on earth His immediate

successor hardly survived election to the Holy See; and was followed by Julius II., an energetic and militantPope, who was bent on forming the Papal States into an effective temporal principality

In the next year Isabella of Castile died, and by her death the European situation was again materially

affected While she lived she worked in complete accord with her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon; her namestands high among the ablest of European sovereigns But with her death the Crowns of Castile and Aragonwere no longer united Ferdinand was not King of Castile; the sceptre descended to the dead Queen's daughterJoanna, [Footnote: The elder sister was already dead, as well as the one brother.] and in effect to her husband,the Archduke Philip, Maximilian's son, and after her to their son Charles At the most, Ferdinand could hopeonly to exercise a dominant influence (converted after Philip's death in 1506 into practical sovereignty asRegent), with a perpetual risk of Maximilian turning his flighty ambitions towards asserting himself as a rival.[Sidenote: The Earl of Suffolk 1499-1505]

Although both Warbeck and Warwick had been removed in 1499, Henry had not been altogether free fromYorkist troubles in the succeeding years Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, was brother of that Earl ofLincoln who had fallen at the battle of Stoke, and son of a sister of Edward IV The Earl had not hitherto comeforward as a claimant to the throne; but in 1499 he developed a personal grievance against the King, andbetook himself to the Continent, where a certain Sir Robert Curzon espoused his cause with Maximilian Atthe time, nothing came of the matter; Henry was not afraid of Suffolk, whom he induced to return to Englandwith a pardon In 1501, however, the Earl again betook himself to the Continent and made a direct appeal toMaximilian for assistance But Henry was now on particularly good terms with the Archduke Philip, andMaximilian was inclining to revert to friendly relations with England He was in his normal condition ofimpecuniosity, and Henry was prepared to provide a loan to help him in a Turkish war if his own rebellioussubjects were handed over The issue of these negotiations, towards the end of 1502, was a loan from Henry

of fifty thousands crowns, and a promise from Maximilian to eject Suffolk and his supporters In the

meantime several of Suffolk's accomplices were executed in England, including James Tyrrel who had abetted

Richard III in the murder of the Princes in the Tower; and [Footnote: See genealogical table (Front.).]

William de la Pole and William Courtenay (son of the Earl of Devonshire) were imprisoned on suspicion ofcomplicity Suffolk, however, remained at Aix la Chapelle, Maximilian making him many promises andproviding inadequate supplies, while with equal lightness of heart having got his loan he left his pledges toHenry unfulfilled by anything more substantial than professions that he was doing his best to carry them out

In 1504 the migratory Earl had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the Duke of Gueldres, who detainedhim for use as circumstances might dictate to the annoyance of the Kings of France and Scotland, both ofwhom wished him to be handed over to the King of England

[Sidenote: 1505 Henry's position]

In 1505 then Henry's relations with all foreign Powers were satisfactory: that is, none of them were hostile andmost of them were anxious for his friendship In these later years, however, of Henry's reign he appearsconsistently in a more definitely unamiable light than before The two counsellors who, however thoroughlythey endorsed his policy, had probably exercised a moderating and refining influence Cardinal Morton andReginald Bray were now both dead, and there is no doubt that Elizabeth of York, popular herself, had been avery judicious helpmeet to her husband Moreover, though he was still by no means an old man, Henry wasbecoming worn out; yet he could never escape from dynastic anxieties, the younger Henry being now his onlyson Marriage schemes had always been prominent features in his policy, and the marriage schemes forhimself which he evolved one after the other in the closing years of his reign show him in a singularly

unattractive light, at the same time that his financial methods were growing increasingly mean, and his

evasions of honourable obligations increasingly unscrupulous

Now the Duke of Gueldres was in conflict with the Archduke Philip at this time not only lord of the

Burgundian domains, but also in right of his wife King of Castile and not on the best of terms with his

father-in-law of Aragon In 1505 Philip got possession in his turn of the person of Suffolk, by capturing thetown where the Duke of Gueldres held him Therefore during this year Henry became particularly anxious tomake friends with Philip, and lent him money; having got which, Philip preferred placing his hostage again inthe hands of the Duke of Gueldres, who had submitted to him

[Sidenote: Schemes for his marriage]

Out of these conditions rose another futile suggestion of a marriage for Henry: who had already consideredand dismissed the idea of marrying the younger of the two living ex-Queens of Naples both named Joanna aniece of Ferdinand of Aragon The wife now proposed was Philip's sister, Margaret, who on her first

widowhood had been spoken of as a possible alternative to Katharine for Arthur of Wales Since then, she hadbecome Margaret of Savoy, the name by which she is generally known; but had been widowed a second time.This proposal probably came from Philip, but was resolutely resisted by Margaret herself

[Sidenote: 1506 Philip in England]

In 1506 fortune favoured Henry Philip sailed from the Netherlands in January to take possession of the throne

of Castile: but was driven on to the English shores by stress of weather The English King received himroyally, but while the utmost show of friendliness prevailed, Philip found that he had no alternative to

acceptance of Henry's suggestions Before the King of Castile departed, he had not only entered on a treaty formutual defence against any aggressor, but had actually delivered over the person of the unhappy Suffolk[Footnote: So Busch Gairdner is doubtful.] to his sovereign, though under promise that he should not be put

to death The prisoner, however, was committed to the Tower, and though Henry kept his word, he is reported

to have advised his son that the promise would not be binding on him At any rate Suffolk was executed,apparently without further trial, early in the next reign His brother Richard, known as the "White Rose," whohad abetted him, remained abroad, and was ultimately killed in the service of Francis I at the battle of Pavia

in 1525, leaving no children

Philip had hardly departed from England when a new commercial treaty which he had authorised was signedwith the Netherlands, terminating the war of tariffs which had again become active in recent years Thistreaty, it is not surprising to remark, was so favourable to England that in contradistinction to the older

Intercursus Magnus the Flemings entitled it the Intercursus Malus.

[Sidenote: Death of Philip]

The few remaining months of Philip's life were troubled The position in Castile was difficult enough, and in

his absence the Duke of Gueldres again revolted, with some assistance from France Henry interfered, as hewas bound to do by the recent treaty, not without some effect But Philip's death in September left his wifeJoanna Queen of Castile, with her father Ferdinand as Regent, and her young son Charles Lord of the

Netherlands, with Margaret of Savoy at the head of the Council of Regency Under these new conditionsHenry agreed to modifications in the new commercial treaty, which indeed, as it stood, was almost impossible

of fulfilment; probably in the hope that his project of marriage with Margaret of Savoy might still be carriedout, the dowry she would bring being very much more satisfactory than that of Joanna of Naples

[Sidenote: 1507-8 Matrimonial projects]

In a very short time, however, Margaret had another rival, at least for the purposes of diplomacy This wasJoanna of Castile, Philip's widow, whom Henry had seen in the spring of 1506 That her sanity was alreadyvery much in question seems to have made very little difference Throughout the greater part of 1507 and

1508 the English King was making overtures to Margaret herself, and for Joanna to Ferdinand, blowing hotand cold in the matter of his son Henry and Katharine, and pushing on the betrothal of his younger daughterMary with the boy Charles a proposal brought forward, when the latter was but four months old, in 1500, butnot at that time sedulously pressed In part, at least, the explanation of all this diplomatic play lies in Henry'srelations with Ferdinand The King of Aragon, having lost his wife Isabella, wished to retain control ofCastile; at the same time he was in difficulties about paying up the balance of Katharine's dowry, withoutwhich Henry would not allow her marriage with his son to go forward, while the luckless princess was keptscandalously short of supplies Henry certainly wished to put all the pressure possible on Ferdinand to get thedowry; perhaps he seriously contemplated marriage with Joanna as a means of himself depriving Ferdinand ofcontrol in Castile; the marriage of Charles to his daughter Mary would have a similar advantage On the otherhand, if he married Margaret of Savoy he would get control of the Netherlands, and still grasp at the control ofCastile through Charles, while playing off the boy's two grandfathers, Maximilian and Ferdinand, against eachother Henry was in fact paying Ferdinand back in his own coin; but the picture is an unedifying one, of craftagainst craft, working by sordid methods for ends which had very little to do with patriotism and no

connexion with justice

[Sidenote: 1508 The League of Cambrai]

If, however, it was now Henry's primary object to isolate Ferdinand so that he could impose his own terms onhim, the object was not attained Maximilian had just taken up a new idea the dismemberment of Venice; anobject which appealed both to Lewis of France and to Pope Julius Ferdinand could generally reckon that if hejoined a league he would manage to get more than his share of the spoils for less than his share of the work.The League of Cambrai a simple combination for robbery without excuse was formed at the end of 1508.Henry was left out, for which, indeed, he cared little, knowing that the process of spoliation would inevitablyresult in quarrels among the leaguers But though he advanced the arrangements for the marriage of Charlesand Mary so far as to have a proxy ceremony performed, the marriage project with Joanna was withdrawn,and his overtures were also finally declined by Margaret of Savoy

[Sidenote: Wolsey]

In the last year of his life, however, his diplomatic successor destined to outshine him in his own field cameinto employment as a negotiator It was Thomas Wolsey who probably carried through the arrangement forthe union with Charles; Wolsey also who re-established friendly relations with Scotland, which had beenbecoming seriously strained In 1505 James had more definitely promised not to renew the French alliance;but had considered himself absolved from this and other obligations, on the usual ground of border raids, inwhich Wolsey himself admitted that the English had been very much more guilty than the Scots

[Sidenote: 1509 Death of Henry VII.]

But Henry's own days were numbered As a boy and as a young man he had lived a hard life; throughout thefour-and-twenty years of his reign he had never been free from the strain of anxiety, never relaxed his labours,never allowed himself to cast his cares upon other shoulders In 1508 he had a serious illness, from which henever fully recovered; in the early spring of 1509 his health finally and fatally broke down On April 21st thefounder of the Tudor dynasty and of the Tudor system left the throne, which he had won by the sword, to ason, whose right by inheritance was beyond dispute.

CHAPTER IV

HENRY VII (iv), 1485-1509 ASPECTS OF THE REIGN

[Sidenote: 1485 Henry's position]

The task before Henry when he ascended the throne was a difficult one He had to establish a new dynastywith a very questionable title, under conditions which could not have allowed any conceivable title to passwithout risk of being challenged It was therefore necessary for him not merely to buttress his hereditary claim

by marrying the rival whose title was technically the strongest, and securing the pronouncement of Parliament

in his favour, together with such adventitious sanction as a Papal Bull afforded; but further to make his

subjects contented with his rule

Two things were definitely in his favour The old nobility who between the spirit of faction and the love offighting had kept the country in a state of turmoil for half a century were exhausted not merely decimated butalmost wiped out; while the mass of the population was weary of war and ready to welcome almost any onewho could and would provide orderly government The country was craving to have done with anarchy.[Sidenote: Studied legality]

A firm hand and a resolute will were thus the primary necessities; but tired as the nation was, it was still ready

to resent a flagrant tyranny The Yorkist Kings had seen that absolutism was the condition of stability; Henryperceived that, applied as they had applied it, the stability would still be wanting He had to find a meanbetween the wantonly arbitrary absolutism which had been attempted a century before by Richard II andrecently by Edward IV and Richard III on the one hand, and on the other hand the premature application ofconstitutional ideas under the House of Lancaster The actual method evolved was the concentration of allcontrol in the hands of the King, accompanied by an ostentatious deference to the forms of procedure whichwere liable to be put forward as popular rights, and a very keen attention to the limits of popular endurance.Thus Henry's first step was to summon Parliament and follow the Lancastrian precedent of obtaining itsratification of his own title to the throne The next step, necessitated by his position, was to cut the claws ofthe Yorkists as a faction by striking at Richard's principal supporters This could only be done effectively bytreating them as traitors a proceeding which could not but savour of tyranny, since they had at any rate been

supporting the de facto King: so again Henry took the only means of minimising the arbitrary character of his

action, by obtaining parliamentary sanction Some ten years later, at the time of Perkin Warbeck's attempted

landing at Deal, he procured the remarkable enactment that support of a de facto King should not in the future

be accounted as treason to the successor who dethroned him a measure characterised by Bacon, writing ahundred years later, as too magnanimous to be politic In 1485 it would have been so; but at the actual time

Henry was himself the de facto monarch; he had no wish to punish his predecessor's supporters further; and he

was really providing an inducement to his subjects to be loyal to the ruling dynasty At the same time he couldpose as advocating abstract justice in preference to the prevailing practice by which he had himself profited;strengthening his own hands in fact, while in theory he was introducing into politics the recognition of anethical principle which as it happened no longer conflicted with his own advantage

[Sidenote: Policy of lenity]

In fact Henry had an unusual perception of the political uses of a judicious leniency: but the leniency wasdeliberate and considered He could also strike hard, on occasion The rebels who were taken in the fightingnear Deal met with scant mercy; and a very few months earlier, the execution of the apparently trusted andpowerful William Stanley had been a sharp reminder that the royal clemency could not be taken for granted.Three years later he carried severity altogether beyond the limits of justice in executing Warwick But as arule he was lenient to a degree which had even its dangers Simnel was treated as of too small account to beworth punishing Warbeck from his capture till his attempt to escape was maintained in comfort and almost infreedom Suffolk's earlier escapades were pardoned Kildare was repeatedly forgiven, and really convertedinto a loyal subject The Cornish insurgents of the Blackheath episode were dealt with so tenderly that theytook clemency for weakness Warbeck's Cornish rising was turned conveniently to account for the

replenishment of the royal treasury by the infliction of fines, but no one who had supported it could complain

of harsh treatment; rather they must have felt in every case that they had been let off very easily according toall precedents

Even when Lovel's and Simnel's risings were in actual progress, pardons were offered to such of the rebels aswould make haste to repent; and there was no withdrawal of those pardons afterwards on more or less

plausible pretexts, in the manner of preceding Kings and of Henry's successor after the Pilgrimage of Grace.Broadly speaking it was the King's policy to emphasise the fact that he had no intention of attempting to playthe tyrant, or to vary a rash generosity by capricious blood-thirstiness, like Richard III The sole victim oftyrannous treatment in this sense throughout the reign was the unhappy Warwick

[Sidenote: Repression of the nobles]

But the attitude of strict conformity to law was entirely compatible with that steady concentration of all realcontrol in the King's hands, which was the leading object of Henry's policy For this purpose the primarycondition was that none of his subjects should be sufficiently powerful to challenge his authority and raise thestandard of revolt, as the King-Maker and others had done in the past The old nobility were practically wipedout Insignificant husbands were chosen for the daughters of York The blood of the Plantagenets ran in theveins of the house of Buckingham; but it was only in the last generation that the De la Poles had mated withthe royal house, and their estates were much diminished; the Howards had suffered as supporters of Richard.Surrey indeed was deservedly restored to grace; but no amount of personal loyalty or of royal favour

exempted the nobles from the severe restriction of the old practice of maintaining retainers in such numbers as

to form a working nucleus for a fighting force; nor were they allowed to accumulate wealth dangerously.Henry was well pleased that his subjects should gather sufficient riches to feel a strong interest in the

maintenance of order, but not enough to use it to create disorder

Beyond this, however, he was careful to employ the nobles as ministers no more than he could help He laidthe burdens of statesmanship as much as possible on the clergy on Morton and Fox and Warham Fox, asBishop of Durham, played a part in the relations of England and Scotland at least as influential as that ofSurrey After Morton's death Warham became Chancellor Yet each of these three bishops felt happier in theconduct of his ecclesiastical functions than as a minister of the Crown All three did worthy and conscientiousservice, but would willingly have withdrawn from affairs of State They were counsellors, not rulers; the onereal ruler was the King himself

While the King restrained the power of the nobility as military factors in the situation, he developed his owncontrol of military force by the revival of the militia system, always theoretically in force, but practically oflate displaced by the baronial levies; and his hands were further strengthened by the possession of the onlytrain of artillery in the realm, the value of which was markedly exemplified in the suppression of the Cornishinsurgents

[Sidenote: The Star Chamber]

Another instrument in the King's hands, invaluable for the purpose of holding barons and officials in check,

was the institution which came to be known as the Star Chamber [Footnote: _Cf._ Maitland in Social

England, vol ii., p 655, ed 1902; Busch, p 267.] Beside the development of the House of Peers as the

highest court of judicature in the realm, the development of the Great Council on similar lines had long beengoing on The two bodies differed somewhat in this way that the peers had the right of summons to the

former, when the judges might be called in to their assistance; whereas there were ex officio members of the

Council who were not peers, and considerable uncertainty prevailed as to the right of peers as peers to attendthe Council The customary powers of the Council arose from the need of a court too powerful and

independent to be in danger of being intimidated or bribed by influence or wealth, able to penalise grossmiscarriage of justice fraudulently procured, and to take in hand cases with which the ordinary courts wouldhave had grave difficulty in dealing In exercising this function the Council practically came to resolve itselfinto a judicial committee, meeting in a room known as the Star Chamber, and its authority was regularised byAct of Parliament in 1487 Absorbing into its hands offences in the matter of "maintenance" and

"livery," _i.e._, broadly speaking, practices which the nobility had indulged in for the magnification of theirhouseholds, and the provision of a military following and being peculiarly subject to the royal influence, itwas exceedingly useful to the King in keeping the baronage within bounds Following, on the other hand, aprocedure analogous to that of the ecclesiastical courts, unchecked by juries, and having authority to punishofficers of the law whom it found guilty of illegal or corrupt practices, its influence was gradually extended,

so that the fear of it guided the judgments of inferior courts Under Henry VII., however, its functions wereexercised at least mainly in the cause of justice they were used, not abused to the public satisfaction, as well

as to the strengthening of the King's own hands The moderation with which Henry used the powers he wasaccumulating concealed the latent possibility of the misuse of those same powers by a capricious or arbitrarymonarch

[Sidenote: Henry's use of Parliament]

Not less conspicuous is Henry's application of the same principles in his dealings with Parliament He wascareful, as we have seen, to secure for his own claims the sanction of the National Assembly, and to give duerecognition to the authority of the estates of the realm But he gave it no opportunity of acquiring powers ofinitiative, and he directed his financial policy to placing himself in such a position that he could escape thatextension of its controlling powers, which naturally followed whenever a King found himself dependent on itfor supplies Throughout the first half of his reign he summoned frequent Parliaments, obtaining considerablegrants on the pretext of foreign wars which were in themselves popular; but he turned the wars themselves toaccount by evading extensive military operations, and securing cash indemnities when peace was made Heeven resorted, when a serious emergency arose, to benevolences, which were illegal; but he first secured theapproval of the Council, which could still act to some degree as a substitute for Parliament when the

Legislature was not in session, and he afterwards obtained the ratification of Parliament itself By this means

he obtained more than sufficient for the actual expenditure; in the meantime accumulating additional treasure

by forfeitures from rebels and fines for transgression of the law We have already observed his method ofconsistently resorting to pecuniary penalties as an apparently lenient form of punishment, which convenientlyreplenished his treasury Thus, during the latter part of his reign, he was able to do without Parliaments almostentirely; supplementing his revenues through his agents Empson and Dudley, who made it their business todiscover pretexts for enforcing fines under colour of law, and often with the flimsiest pretence of real justice.[Sidenote: Financial exactions]

It was in this field that Henry overstepped his normal policy of not only working through the law but avoidingmisuse of it For the filling of Henry's treasury, the law was abused The exactions of Empson and Dudleywere made possible by the statute of 1495, empowering judges, upon information received, to initiate in theirown courts trials of offenders who were supposed to have escaped prosecution through the corruption or

intimidation of juries Empson and Dudley being appointed judges found it an easy task to provide informers,who laid before them charges on which a case could be made out for fining the accused In theory, of course,the King was not responsible, and the guilty judges paid the penalty with their lives early in the followingreign But the King did in fact get his full share of the discredit attaching; and perhaps his methods in thisparticular have been emphasised out of proportion to other traits in his character and policy by popular

writers There is some reason to doubt if Henry was ever quite fully aware of the extent to which these

extortions were distortions of law; and there is no doubt at all that Empson and Dudley did not conduct theiroperations with a single eye to their master's benefit, but contrived to intercept ample perquisites on their ownaccount The statute was soon repealed under Henry VIII

[Sidenote: Trade theories]

Modern economic theories depend for their validity on the postulates of the transferability of capital and oflabour In proportion to the limitation of the industries possible to a community, their laws apply, or fail toapply, within that community The development of a new industry may be impossible, in the competition withestablished rivals, without artificial assistance assistance given to that industry at the expense of the

community at large; the preservation of an existing industry may demand like assistance When the labour andcapital employed can be transferred productively to another industry, it is obviously better that the transfershould take place, and the failing industry lapse, than that the community should be charged with maintaining

an industry which cannot support itself whether or no the competitors driving it out of the market are

enabled to do so only by like extraneous assistance When the capital and the labour cannot be transferred, butthe industry can be maintained by assistance, the question becomes one of weighing the cost of maintenance

to the community against the injury to the community from the collapse of the industry Thus in any state withits commerce in the making, when the transferability of capital and labour is at best in dispute, the theory ofbuying in the cheapest market, wherever it is to be found, is not in favour It is held better to raise the prices to

the point at which the native product pays its native producers In mediaeval times the foreigner was prima

facie a person who came not to bring trade but to appropriate it Hence he was subjected to regulations,

limitations and charges for permission to carry on his operations The next stage is reached when reciprocalfree trade is recognised as an advantage and mutual concessions are made, restrictions and duties becoming,

so to speak, implements of war, often enough proving two-edged

[Sidenote: Henry's commercial policy]

Henry VII was not an economist far in advance of the theories of his age; but economic considerations, asthey were then understood, carried much more weight, and generally played a much larger part in his policythan was customary with the king-craft of the times, or with state-craft outside the commercial republic ofVenice, the commercial association of German Free cities known as the Hansa or Hanseatic League, and theNetherlands Accordingly we find him using every available means to obtain a footing in fresh foreign

markets for the main English products of his day wool and woollen goods; to secure for English merchantsthe rights and privileges which would enable them to compete on equal terms with the foreigner, and to curtailthose privileges of the foreigner in England In the matter of wool, the primacy of the English article was sothoroughly established that little extraneous aid was required But with manufactured woollen goods the casewas different, since the Flemings held the lead; and shipping also demanded artificial encouragement first,because it was necessary to enterprise in the development of the export trade, at present largely carried on inforeign bottoms; second, because the King was, at least to some extent, alive to the strategic uses of a fleetwhich could be requisitioned for war purposes

[Sidenote: The Netherlands trade]

The great mart for English wool was the Netherlands, whose manufacturing business required the raw

product: the Netherlanders were more dependent on England than the English were on them Hence this tradewas used by Henry throughout his reign as a political lever a means to political ends rather than an end in

itself If his own subjects suffered from a customs war, Philip's suffered more So long as Burgundy madetrouble on behalf of Perkin Warbeck the battle went on In 1496 Philip gave up the contest, and the

Intercursus Magnus followed Soon after the beginning of the new century the fight was renewed, to be

terminated by what the Flemings called the Intercursus Malus, an arrangement so one-sided and pressing so

hard on them that its terms were practically impossible of fulfilment; and Henry assented to their modificationbefore his death, partly with a view to overcoming the reluctance of Margaret of Savoy to accept his

matrimonial overtures

[Sidenote: The Hansa]

When Henry came to the throne, he found the export trade mainly in the hands of two foreign groups theHansa, who had acquired privileges in England which they did not reciprocate, and the Venetians, who heldtheir own without privileges by superior commercial acuteness and of two English groups, the Merchants ofthe Staple, who controlled the wool markets, and the Merchant Adventurers, who were mainly interested inthe manufactured goods The King therefore followed a consistent policy of straining, in a restrictive sense,the interpretation of the concessions made to the Hansa, of emphasising grievances against them and ofpressing for counter- privileges; and he successfully negotiated with Denmark in 1489 a commercial treaty,which interfered with the Hansa monopoly of the Scandinavian trade, by placing English merchants on acompetitive footing with them In a similar manner, he brought pressure to bear on the Venetians by openingdirect relations with the Florentines at their port of Pisa It is curious to note incidentally that the export dues

on raw wool were enormously heavier than those on the manufactured goods; the difference being made inorder to encourage the home sale of the wool and to stimulate the home manufacture by this means, as well as

by encouraging the foreign sale of the manufactured goods It is also observable that when an attempt wasmade by the London merchants to capture the worsted trade, Henry nipped it in the bud It was no part of hispolicy to allow corporations any more than individuals to become powerful enough to demand terms fortheir political support

[Sidenote: The Navigation Acts]

Recognising, as we saw, the commercial advantage to England of doing her own carrying trade and of

multiplying ships and seamen, Henry tentatively at first, but with increasing confidence adopted artificialmethods of encouraging this branch of industry, at the expense of free competition Very early in the reign aNavigation Act required that goods shipped for England from certain foreign ports should be embarked onEnglish vessels, during a specified period Then the Act was renewed for a longer period, and finally without

a time limit, and with more extended application A great impetus was given to English shipping, with

momentous results which can hardly have entered into Henry's calculations He could not have anticipated thevast extensions of empire which were to be the prize of the nations with ocean-going navies, with the oceanitself for the great battlefield; or even the extent to which commerce and naval preponderance were destined

to go hand in hand The monopoly of the States with a Mediterranean sea-board was coming to an end

[Sidenote: Voyages of discovery]

Yet it was in his reign that the vast change was initiated In 1492 Christopher Columbus made his greatvoyage: in 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed for India, not westwards but southwards and eastwards round the Cape

of Good Hope Ten years later, Albuquerque was founding a Portuguese Empire in the Indian seas Spain andPortugal, pioneers of the great movement, led the way, one in the new world of the West, the other in thefabled world of the East; where for many a year to come they were to divide a monopoly authorised by thePapal Bull of Alexander VI Before another century closed, their dominion was to be challenged by Englandgrown mighty and by Holland emancipated As yet, however, men dreamed only formless if gorgeous dreams

of what the unknown realms might bring forth England played no very large part in these early voyages.Christopher Columbus, craving to discover a westerly route to the Indies, and failing of Portuguese support,sent his brother Bartholomew to petition the English King for aid; but Bartholomew was captured by pirates

Ultimately he reached England, but before he could achieve his purpose, Christopher had found other helpers;the prize fell to Ferdinand and Isabella The first historic expedition which sailed from English ports wascaptained not by an Englishman but by another Italian, John Cabot, and his son Sebastian, in 1497 TheCabots were Venetians who had for some time been established at Bristol They aimed for a north-westpassage, and found Labrador and Newfoundland, cold, inhospitable, producing no wealth: the explorers whosailed under Spanish auspices struck the wealthy and entrancing regions of the south There was little enoughmaterial inducement beyond the simple spirit of enterprise to attract capital to expend itself in aid of theBristol men who followed in the wake of Cabot Henry deserves full credit for the encouragement and actualpecuniary help which he rendered at first, and no blame for its discontinuation The daring of the adventurerswas but ill repaid for the time; yet a mighty harvest was to be reaped by England in the days to come.

[Sidenote: The rural revolution]

If England, however, did not for more than half a century turn the new discoveries to material account, wealthand prosperity did increase greatly in the towns, and the country recovered her lost position among the

commercial nations partly from Henry's policy directed to that end, partly from the comparatively settledconditions of life which gradually prevailed In the agricultural districts, however, this was hardly the case,owing to the increasing tendency to substitute pasture for cultivation The country had no difficulty in

producing sufficient for its own consumption; and the development of the woollen manufacture made

sheep-farming in particular much more lucrative But sheep-farming called for the employment of many fewerhands; proprietors dispossessed small tenants to make large sheep-runs; migration from the rural districts tothe nascent manufacturing centres was not a simple matter; and thus there was no little distress, and a greatmultiplication of beggars and vagabonds The monasteries, which in the past had been progressive farmers,had degenerated into landlords easy-going indeed but without enterprise The wealth of the gentry increased,but unemployment increased also, and labour at the same time became cheaper The evil was to a great extentrealised; in the Isle of Wight, which was rapidly becoming depopulated, an attempt was made to improvematters by limiting the size of farms; the heavy export duties on raw wool were doubtless intended actually torestrict the output as well as to divert it to English rather than foreign manufacturers; but since this did noteffectively check the growing demand at home, the production of wool remained so lucrative that it continued

to be more attractive than cultivation Attempts were made to transfer labour from agriculture to manufacture

by interfering with, the restrictions imposed by the trade-guilds (which always aimed at making themselvesclose bodies), the object of such legislation being quite as much to prevent idleness as to relieve distress

Nevertheless, the evil grew Sir Thomas More in his introduction to the Utopia, written early in the next reign,

gives a vigorous sketch of the prevalent vagabondage just before the death of Cardinal Morton, adding to thecauses above mentioned the number of lackeys employed by the wealthy who when dismissed became auseless burden on the community He also charges the land-owners, expressly including many abbots andothers of the clergy, with causing depopulation and misery by forcing up rents From him too as well as fromother sources we learn of the frequency of crimes of violence, attributed by him to the reckless employment ofthe death penalty for minor offences, encouraging the fugitive criminal already doomed if caught to take lifewithout hesitation

[Sidenote: The Church]

To a certain extent, then, we have to note among the causes of change in rural districts the failure of themonasteries to discharge their old function of agricultural leadership In other respects, also, these

communities had fallen from the high standards of earlier days Discipline was lax Visitations instituted byCardinal Morton revealed the presence of gross immorality, not only among the very small houses, but in sogreat an institution as the Abbey of St Albans, where the highest officials were guilty of the gravest

misbehaviour; and the correspondence seems to imply that the disapprobation was by no means in proportion

to the offences, from which it is fair to infer that no high standard was normally expected The most to belooked for was an absence of flagrant misconduct The clergy were much more particular about ceremonialobservances and ecclesiastical privileges than about the morals either of themselves or of their flocks But as

yet there was no sign of a coming Reformation Lollardry, it is true, had never been killed; its anti-clericalpropaganda was by no means inactive But it worked beneath the surface, and could not be taken to indicate

an approaching convulsion The greatest Churchmen of the day, Morton, Warham and Fox, were

absorbed albeit reluctantly in affairs of State Blameless, even austere in their own lives, patrons of learning,sincerely pious, they lacked the Reformer's passion, without which it was vain to combat the _vis inertiae_;generated by long years of clerical sloth, and of the formalism by which the highest Mysteries were vulgarlydistorted into superstitions and Faith into ceremonial observances

[Sidenote: Henry and Rome]

The first Tudor himself was a pious man, as piety was reckoned: punctual in observances, commended andcomplimented by Popes His chapel in Westminster Abbey is evidence of his zeal in one direction; he gavealms with a business-like regard to their post-mortem efficacy Throughout his reign the Popes made muchtalk of a new crusade, and Henry seems to have been the one European monarch who took the idea seriously

It is true that when Alexander VI appealed in 1500 for funds to that end, the English King preferred to beexcused; but the polite irony of his refusal was more than justified by his confidence that if the Pope got themoney it would not be expended for the benefit of Christendom; moreover, he did actually hand over fourthousand pounds In fact, he took the Church as he found it There was but one almost infinitesimal

curtailment of ecclesiastical privileges in his reign, necessitated by political considerations and accepted bythe Pope, whereby the right of Sanctuary was withdrawn in cases of treason

[Sidenote: Learning and letters]

Practically it is only in the beginnings of an educational revival that we find promise of the dawn of a neworder It was in Henry's reign that the study of Greek, and with it the new criticism, began to establish itself.Grocyn and Linacre led the way In the last decade of the century John Colet was lecturing at Oxford, theapostle of the new learning on its religious side; calling his pupils to the study of the Scriptures themselves,rather than of the schoolmen or doctors of the Church; treating them as organic treatises, not as collections oftexts There he won the friendship of young Thomas More; thither on flying visits came Erasmus twice Colet,made Dean of St Paul's about 1505, continued to carry on his educational work as the founder of the famous

St Paul's School; winning renown also as a great preacher and a fearless moralist; a man of rich learning, of areverent enthusiasm, of a splendid sincerity, of a noble simplicity; the prophet of much that was best, and ofnothing that was not best, in the coming Reformation

But during Henry's reign Colet's figure is almost the only one apart from such representatives of eruditionand scholarship as Grocyn and Linacre which stands forth holding out a promise of intellectual and moralprogress In effect there was no literature; in this respect Scotland was in advance of England with the verse of

William Dunbar More's Utopia was still unwritten When Henry died the Universities had not yet, or had

only just, received within their portals the men who were to fight the theological battle of the Reformation.More than half a century was to pass before the splendid sunrise of the Shakespearian era

[Sidenote: Henry's character]

It has hardly, perhaps, been the custom to render full justice to the founder of the Tudor dynasty His reign isstamped with a character sordid and unattractive There is no romance in it, no clashing of arms, no valiantdeeds, no suggestion of the heroic The King's enemies are, for the most part, contemptible persons; the Kinghimself is a cold-blooded, long-headed ruler, merciful indeed, but from policy, not from generosity, and of ameanness in money matters very far from royal Yet he was not without virtues He was not unjust; he was astatesman more loyal to his pledges than most of his contemporaries or their successors He gave somethinglike order and rest to a distracted land, and raised her again to a position at least respectable among the

nations, securing himself on a most unstable throne without resorting to the usual methods of the tyrant Had

he died when Morton died, the baser aspects of his reign would never have achieved so unlovely a

prominence as they have done.

The truth is, indeed, that judged by the first half of his reign alone Henry might have been numbered amongthe princes with a title to be regarded almost with affection It is only in the light of the later years that evenhis financial policy really assumes a mean aspect, though occasionally it came perilously near what may becalled sharp practice and the excuse was great, seeing that a full treasury was an absolutely necessary

condition of establishing the new rule The imprisonment of Warwick was an act of palpable injustice, yet therisk of letting him go free would have been enormous In another ruler than Henry, the leniency which weattribute to astute policy would have been freely described as surprising magnanimity He never betrayed aloyal servant His genuine appreciation of the true spirit of chivalry was shown when he took Surrey

[Footnote: Surrey, the son of "Jockey of Norfolk," Richard's supporter, was imprisoned in the Tower At thetime of Simnel's insurrection his gaoler offered to let him escape, but he refused, saying that the King had senthim to confinement, and only from the King would he accept release.] from the Tower to entrust him withhigh command in the North The luckless Lady Katharine Gordon, the wife of Perkin Warbeck, was treatedwith remarkable courtesy and liberality There was even a genial humour in the King's behaviour to Kildare.His own marriage he doubtless looked upon as a purely political affair; but while his wife lived his loyalty tohis marriage vow is in strong contrast to the general licentiousness of the princes of his day; and the picture ofHenry and Elizabeth striving in turn to comfort each other on Prince Arthur's death, as recorded by a

contemporary, [Footnote: Gairdner, _Chron._, i., p 36; Leland's Collectanea, v., p, 373.] can hardly be fitted

on to the conception of Henry as a man almost without the more tender feelings of humanity

[Sidenote: Deterioration after 1499]

Yet all this is forgotten or discoloured by reason of the ugly picture of those later days when Morton andPrince Arthur and Elizabeth were gone It seems, indeed, as though a certain moral deterioration had set infrom the time when Henry made up his mind to do violence to his conscience by making away with Warwick

in 1499 Morton, his wisest counsellor, of whom More gives a most attractive portrait in the Utopia, died the

next year; Arthur, whom he loved, in the spring of 1502; Elizabeth, always a refining and softening influence,within a twelvemonth of Arthur To these latter years belong almost entirely the extortions of Empson andDudley; the harsh treatment of Katharine of Aragon, a helpless hostage in his hands; the revolting proposal for

a union with the crazy Joanna of Castile This view is further borne out when we observe that in these yearsalso his political foresight degenerates into craftiness, personal animosities playing a larger part The

intellectual falling off is hardly less marked than the moral For the personal repute of a King who was almost,

if not quite, one of the great, it is to be regretted that his last years have cast a permanent cloud over a reignwhich emphatically made for the good of the nation over which he ruled

to the throne or as great feudatories France herself had become a united and aggressive nation; the fusion ofthe Spanish monarchies was almost completed: the Emperor was no longer regarded as the titular secular head

of Christendom, but was virtually the chief of a loose Germanic confederation The Turk, finally established

in Eastern Europe, was shortly to find himself regarded as a possible ally of Christian Powers; Christendomstill reckoned the Pope as its spiritual head, but the cataclysm was already preparing; and the enterprise ofdaring seamen had but just rent the veils that had hidden from the nations of Europe the boundless

possibilities of a new world in the West and an ancient world in the East, converting the pathless ocean intothe great Highway.

[Sidenote: England's position in Europe]

Since the death of the conqueror Henry V., England herself had been rent and torn by internal broils Formany a long year she had taken but little share in the affairs of Europe But it had been the part of the firstTudor King to win for her breathing time; to secure a period for rest and internal recuperation, which shouldfit her to hold her own in the counsels of Europe should her interests demand it The civil broils were ended;trade had revived; wealth had been accumulating Henry had not sought military glory, but he had played thegame of diplomacy with acuteness and finesse When he ascended the throne, the princes of Europe hadregarded England as a Power that might safely be neglected unless she could be used as a cat's-paw; butbefore he died they had learned that they could no longer negotiate with him except on equal terms In a sense,perhaps, it is true that England was still reckoned as no more than a third-rate [Footnote: _Cf._ Brewer,

_Reign of Henry VIII._, i., p.3; Creighton, Wolsey, p 11 The estimate, however, seems to be rather the

outcome of an inclination to magnify Wolsey's achievement.] power, since her military prestige had fallen andthe chances of its restoration were untested, while her interests would not naturally lead her into active

participation in European complications; but she had at least achieved sufficient importance for the Powers todesire her favour rather than her ill-will, and for herself to be able to put a price on her support when it wasasked

[Sidenote: The new King]

So far, however, it was rather respect for the personal ability of Henry VII than a high estimate of the Englishnation that had secured the English position; and when the astute old monarch was succeeded on the throne by

a frank, high-spirited lad of eighteen, the Princes of Europe flattered themselves that England would revert tothe position of a cat's-paw From this point of view the first beginnings of the reign were promising Europe,however, was soon to be undeceived; to discover that the young King had an unfailing eye for a capableminister, a sincere devotion to his own interests, and an unparalleled power of reconciling the dictates ofdesire and conscience

At home, circumstances combined to render Henry extraordinarily popular Handsome, endowed with amagnificent physique, a first-rate performer in all manly exercises, gifted with many accomplishments,scholar enough to be proud of his scholarship, open of hand, frank and genial of manner, with a boyish delight

in his endowments and a boyish enthusiasm for chivalric ideals, all English hearts rejoiced in his accession.The scholars looked forward to a Saturnian age; his martial ardour fired the hopes of the fighting men; thepopulace hailed with joy a King who began his rule by striking down the agents of extortion to whom heowed the wealth inherited from his economical sire Henry in fact was blessed with the most valuable of allpossessions for a ruler of men, a magnetic personality, which made his servants ready to go through fire andwater, to stifle conscience, to forgo their own convictions at his bidding

When he ascended the throne, however, none had the glimmering of a suspicion whither that imperious willwas to direct the destinies of the nation: his earliest acts gave little indication of the later developments of hischaracter and policy

_L & P._, i., 1212.] since the misdeeds of which they had been guilty could hardly be construed into capitaloffences.

Now, however, events on the Continent were to offer a field for Henry's ambitions, and incidentally to

disillusion, at least in part, his young enthusiasms

[Sidenote: The Powers: 1509-12]

The three great Powers France, Spain, and the Empire which had been evolved out of the mediaeval

European system, were united in the desire of preventing Italy from following their example and consolidatinginto a nation Venice, as the one Italian State strong enough to have some chance of combining the rest underher leadership, was the object not only of their jealousy but also of the Pope's A few months before the death

of Henry VII., these four combined in the League of Cambrai, for the dismemberment of Venice The allies,however, were not guided in their actions by any altruistic motives any excessive regard for the interests oftheir associates The French King, Lewis XII., by prompt and skilful action, made himself master of the north

of Italy before the rest were ready to move This was by no means to the taste of Ferdinand or of Pope Julius;but as yet Maximilian had seen no reason to be displeased Ferdinand would not risk a quarrel with

Maximilian, which might have led to that monarch's interference in Castile on behalf of the boy Charles hisgrandson as well as Ferdinand's the nominal King of that portion of what Ferdinand looked on as his owndominions So the crafty old King bided his time, dropping a quiet hint to young Henry in England that amoment might be approaching favourable to an English attack on France, in revival of the ancient claim to thecrown, or at any rate to Guienne

Henry, as yet unskilled in the tortuous diplomacy of his father-in-law, was well content to be guided by hisadvice Ferdinand intrigued to unite Julius and Maximilian against France, and to shift the burden of battle,when it should come, off his own shoulders on to Henry's Meantime, the outward professions to Franceremained of the most amicable character

[Sidenote: 1512 Dorset's expedition]

Then Lewis made a blunder which gave his enemies their opening He called a General Council at Pisa whichwas in effect an attack on the spiritual authority of Rome By the end of 1510, Julius was at open war with theFrench King; Ferdinand was in alliance with the Pope; in the course of the next year, the Holy League wasformed; a combined attack was concerted; and in June, 1512, an English expedition, under the command ofLord Dorset, landed in Spain, on the theory that it was to be assisted by Ferdinand in the conquest of Guienne.The expedition was a melancholy failure The English troops and their commander were alike inexperienced

in war; Ferdinand would not move against Guienne, urging with some plausibility that the securing of Navarrewas a needful preliminary; the soldiers wanted beer and had to put up with Spanish wines; finally they

insisted on returning to England, and Dorset had to put the best face he could on a very awkward situation.Officially it was announced that the withdrawal was made with Ferdinand's approval

So far, the European anticipations of England's incapacity had been duly fulfilled A military fiasco hadaccompanied an innocence of diplomatic guile which looked promising to the Continental rulers But thepromise was to be disappointed

[Sidenote: Rise of Wolsey]

Henry VII had avoided war and had been his own foreign minister; when he died, he left to form his son'sCouncil some capable subordinates like Fox the Bishop of Winchester, but no one experienced in the

responsibilities of control Among the noble houses, the Howards were shortly to display at least a fair share

of military capacity But it was to a minister of at best middle-class origin, a rising ecclesiastic who had,